


Hybrid: Cinematic Mode

by ArizaLuca



Category: MCSM, Minecraft Story Mode, Minecraft: Story Mode - Fandom
Genre: Hybrid - Freeform, MCSM - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-16 09:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 36,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10568583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArizaLuca/pseuds/ArizaLuca
Summary: In the middle of the Endercon Building Competition, Jesse, his friends, and a huge group of other people are taken to a strange house seemingly in the middle of nowhere. They are told to watch an alternative path to their future... with another person none of them were really expecting. Welcome to Hybrid: Cinematic Mode.





	1. Hello? (It's Me)

Jesse could only stare, Reuben oinking away in his lap.

This living room was fancy.

Like, REALLY fancy- fancy enough to be in some rich person's home. Stained glass windows, glowstone lamps, red carpet, bookshelves, several armchairs, and several couches. There was also a small glass coffee table in front of this machine on the wall, which looked like it was made of some sort of glass.

Jesse spotted a girl with long black hair that dangled down to the middle of her back and a golden pin keeping the hair out of her eyes, which were, oddly enough, the exact same color and shape as Jesse's. She wore blue dungarees and a white t-shirt with red sleeves. Her mouth was hanging open as she looked around.

In the corner of his eyes, Jesse could see Axel and Olivia sprawled on the floor, and Petra crouching on the floor with her jaw practically hitting the floor.

The girl spotted him looking at her and turned to look at him more clearly, her own eyes slightly wide. "Uh... hi. Do you... know where we are?" she asked, tentatively, still crouched on the floor.

Jesse shook his head. "No... I don't think we've met?" He trailed off questioningly.

"Oh," and she shakily got to her feet and walked over, before she stretched out her hand to shake hands with him. "I-I'm Jesse."

"Oh, wow, that's my name," Jesse said, grinning slightly at the girl.

She let out her own little laugh, green eyes crinkling up the way his did whenever he laughed or smiled. "Wow, coincidence, huh? D'you mind if I call you Jace? You know, so it's less confusing. Like, 'hi Jesse, I'm Jesse'." She said this in a hokey voice that made Jesse laugh. "Not at all. Hi, Jesse- my name's Jace. Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," she joked back, before crossing her arms and looking around as he got to his feet. "Do you know how we got here? I was just kinda minding my own business, and then- poof!" she waved her hands a bit. "I'm here."

"Yeah... I don't know how we got here either..." 'Jace' hummed thoughtfully, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at the floor. He heard a crash from behind him, and twisted around to see-

The two of them exchanged faintly shocked looks.

The Ocelots were in a heap on the floor, trying to disentangle themselves from their little pile. Lukas stood a little off to the side, looking shell-shocked and not helping because of his shell-shocked look. Behind them was a young woman who looked remarkably like Jesse- the girl, not Jace- with long black hair and green eyes, wearing a fancy-looking gold dress and hugging a little white chicken with a crown to her chest. A man with darker skin and an outfit that looked like he was part of some sort of guard was scrambling to his feet behind her, and a little off to the side was another man, but this time with messy blonde hair and a gray shirt.

Off to the side of them was a girl with rose-red hair and glasses, her own green eyes wide as she stared at the group who'd landed in a heap in front of her- A boy with blue hair, a girl with a blue and white striped shirt and brown hair, another girl with bubblegum-pink hair and clear blue eyes, a boy wearing an orange cat hoodie, and a man with darker skin, black hair, and a pair of red glasses. They were having better luck than the Ocelots at disentangling themselves.

A bit behind them was a woman with dark skin and long white hair that was twisted into braids, her gray eyes wide with shock as she stared around at everyone, hands tightening on her brown robes and her aviator-sort of hat, goggles pushed up so that they rested on top of the hat. Behind her was a man with a shock of white hair himself, black glasses perched on his nose and a brightly colored purple suit. Not far behind was another man with white hair and green robes, and a woman with a shock of pale blue hair and blood-red robes. Now that Jace looked closer, she had murky cyan eyes.

Not far from this group was a girl whose size gave AXEL a run for his money with brown hair and a green jumpsuit, and another girl in a green jumpsuit, but with blonde hair and blue eyes, beads clicking around in her blonde hair. Behind them were three extremely burly people that were MUCH bigger than even Axel. One had darker skin and a black-themed outfit, another had a shock of neon pink hair and  _ way _ too much eyeliner, and the last one looked as though he'd had his face put through a meat grinder or something.

"Magnus?"

Jace heard Axel give a high-pitched sort of gasp, and twisted to see-

His eyes widened at the sight of Magnus the Rogue in all his green-armored glory, his trademark black mask covering his face. He blinked at the sight of the brown-haired woman next to him, who was gaping at him in pure shock. "Ellie?" He twisted to see another man with diamond-encrusted armor. "Gabriel?"

"Soren?"

Soren, Magnus, Ellegaard, and Gabriel all gaped at the man with long black hair and dark blue eyes who was staring at them as if he'd seen a ghost. " _ Ivor? _ "

"Wow," Petra breathed, snapping out of her shocked pose, "wow! The Order of the Stone? What are they doing here?" Unbeknownst to her, she'd just voiced Jace's own unsaid thoughts.

"And how do they know this 'Ivor' guy?" Olivia wondered as she got to her feet.

There was a collective clearing of throats, and they turned around again to see all of the various groups staring at each other in shock, confusion, and suspicion.

Jesse cleared her throat authoritatively, making everyone look at her and making her shrink back a step. "Um... hi. Maybe we should clear some stuff up...?"


	2. Introductions and Sleeping Arrangements

"Yeah, we should," the big brown-haired girl growled, stepping forward and making Jesse take another step back quickly, "for starters, why are we here? Why did you bring us here?"

"I didn't," Jesse responded, giving her head a shake, "I'm just as confused as all of you. Maybe we should all introduce ourselves...? I don't really feel like pointing around at everyone to address them. I-I'm Jesse. Pleased to meet all of you...?" She trailed off nervously at the end.

Everyone shared glances, unwilling to be the first person to introduce themselves, before Jace stepped forward. "Hi, my name's also Jesse, but to avoid confusion, you can call me Jace. And this is Reuben," and he leaned down to scoop up the little pink pig, who let out a very cheerful squeal at this.

This prompted Petra to step forward, bowing slightly to everyone as she put her pickaxe away. "Nice to meet you- I'm Petra."

Slowly, the group started to go around, going past Jesse's group, the Ocelots and the Order of the Stone (all of whose names Jace already knew), before it came to the black-haired woman who looked oddly like Jesse. She took a deep breath and straightened up to her full height, making Jace himself stand up straighter in her presence. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you... my name's Isa." She looked like she was about to say more about that, but then paused and didn't. "And this is Benedict." She lifted the hen in her arms slightly.

"Isn't that a boy's name- ow!" and Magnus glared at the brunette woman who'd just stomped on his foot to shut him up.

"I'm Reginald," the guard bowed slightly to everyone, faintly smiling. "Nice to meet you all."

"Um, greetings, everyone... I'm Milo," the blonde man with the gray shirt said, rubbing the back of his head slightly and looking away awkwardly.

"Here, let me introduce all of us..." the guy with black hair and red glasses gestured around. "That's StacyPlays," he gestured at the brunette girl with the striped shirt, "LDShadowLady-" the pink-haired girl interrupted, "But, um, my friends call me Lizzie."

"StampyCat," the boy with the cat hoodie waved a bit, smiling at them. "Dan, the Diamond Minecart," the purple-haired boy (wait, hadn't his hair been blue a minute ago...?) bowed slightly. "Cassie Rose and her cat Winslow," and the girl with rose-red locks waved her hand in a shy wave, her calico cat balancing on her shoulders. "And I'm CaptainSparklez!" the man finished, looking pleased with himself. "I guess you could call us the 'YouTubers', if you need to refer to our group."

The woman with white hair tentatively stepped forward. "Um... I'm- I'm Harper. Pleased to meet you. None of you are... PAMA, right?"

Everyone shot each other weird looks that basically said 'no'. "... what's PAMA?" Isa finally asked, looking faintly bemused.

Harper raised her hands in surrender and looked at the ceiling awkwardly. "Nothing. Never mind."

"Well, I'm Hadrian," the white-haired man in the purple suit said, before gesturing with his head at the other two robed people. "That's Otto, and that's Mevia."

"Hey!" the blonde girl with beads in her hair piped up, "Radical to meet you all. I'm Nell, and this brah's Em."

Jace shot Jesse a look to confirm that, no, neither of them really had any idea what she'd just said.

"I'm Slab, the Immoveable!" And the dark-skinned gladiator (that's what he looked like, so that's what Jace was gong to call them) with the black helmet waved his arms, making Nell dance aside a step to avoid getting smacked in the face. The other two huge gladiators introduced themselves as Clutch (the pink-haired one) and- wait for it- Facemeat. Jace was  _ not _ joking.

"So does anyone know what we're doing in here?" Aiden asked, narrowing his green eyes as he looked around.

Olivia spotted a piece of paper lying on the coffee table and trotted over. She read it, her eyes narrowing the more she read. "... apparently, we're here to be shown an alternative path of the past and future," she said finally, disbelief obviously tinging her voice.

Ellegaard's own eyebrow went up. "An alternative path...? How is that possible?" she mused.

"Your guess is better than mine," Olivia said, handing over the note. "It said that to watch it, we need to find a 'remote' of some sort...?"

"Would the remote be this thing?" Jesse asked, picking up a narrow gray rectangle resting on the other end of the coffee table and waving it slightly at them.

Jace plucked it from her hands (not in a rude way) to get a better look at it. "I don't see anything else that could be a remote..." He regarded the remote. A red button was on the top of the remote, 'POWER' written beneath it. Beneath that, there was a PAUSE button and a PLAY button. He was about to press the POWER button to see what would happen when it got snatched out of his hands, much more rudely than when he'd taken it from Jesse. "Hey!" he exclaimed at Aiden, who pressed the button himself.

"Aiden," Lukas said sternly, narrowing his eyes at the brown-haired boy, "that wasn't cool."

"Besides, you don't really know what that thing could do," Olivia pointed out.

Aiden leered at her. "Um, I can  _ read. _ "

The remote got snatched out of his hands again, and the slightly-shorter Jesse flopped onto the floor in front of the coffee table, arching her eyebrows. "Well, you all obviously have some beef with each other, so until you all have decided to act your age, whatever that might be, I'm going to keep ahold of this thing."

There was a long, awkward silence, before everyone started shifting into the couches and seats. Hadrian, Otto, and Mevia took up one couch, while the Ocelots and the Order of the Stone took another two. Ivor sat in an armchair near Harper's, while the YouTubers (minus Cassie Rose) took another couch. The gladiators took up yet another couch, and Petra stole one of the armchairs while Isa, Reginald, and Milo got into another couch as well. However, this meant all of the seats were taken, and Axel, Olivia, and Jace looked around for a minute.

There was a soft cough, and they looked down to see Jesse sitting on the floor. "This carpet's comfy," was all she said.

The three of them shared looks, before they slowly smiled at her and got into their own positions on the floor.

Jesse picked up the remote and pressed 'PLAY' when she'd confirmed that everyone was ready.


	3. Memories

The screen faded to black, before slowly fading back into sight, in a heavily forested area with a large white building that looked like some sort of hospital coming into view, the moans of zombies the only audible sounds.

"This is already giving me the creeps," Jesse joked slightly.

Jace would've joked back, except the wall suddenly exploded with an extremely loud boom, making everyone in the room jump. Isa found herself practically sprawled on top of Reginald by accident, Magnus had nearly slapped Soren in the face by accident, Ivor had flinched away from the screen hard enough to rock the armchair back, and Cassie's hand had strayed to her back and was grabbing the handle of something.

" _ Hurry! _ "

A little girl with fluffy, short black hair bolted out of there at full speed, white t-shirt and shorts ruffling in the wind. She was scuttling across the ground like a crab at supremely fast speeds. The moment she was clear of the dust, everyone in the audience could see why- she had two extra sets of arms, so that she had eight limbs like a spider.

A little blonde kid with ocelot ears and a golden tail bolted after her, tail flapping in the wind. " _ R-right! _ " he shouted back, even though he nearly slipped and fell flat on his face.

" _ Guys, we can't wait! Come on come on come on! _ " A little girl with short red hair jet-propelled out of there, gold eyes flashing in the darkness as Blaze Rods hovered around her and spun in lazy circles.

" _ We're coming, we're coming! _ " A girl with dark skin, the skin around her right eye darkening to jet-black with her eye being a purple-ish magenta color, bleeped into sight in a spray of pink, magenta, and purple sparks, staggering awkwardly as she nearly fell over.

"This is already exciting and I don't think it's even been two whole minutes," Cassie said, slowly removing her hand from the hilt of whatever she'd been grabbing for.

A rather burly little kid with black hair and green skin that covered his forearms and part of his neck tore out of the hole in the wall, his body smoking. He looked as though he were exhausted. " _ G-guys, wait up...! _ "

The five of them tore out of there, before suddenly the Blaze Rods vanished, and the red-haired girl tumbled violently to the ground with an 'uhf!' being forced out of her lungs, rolling several feet before coming to a halt, panting harshly.

This prompted several sympathetic winces from the audience.

The others all came to a stop, all of them trying their best to inhale, faces shiny with sweat and exertion. " _ Y-you guys okay? _ " the little girl with the extra limbs asked the others, panting, her extra limbs retracting so that the extra sleeves hung limply at her sides and she looked downright normal. The blonde boy adjusted his hair so that the ears got hidden by his messy hair, the burly kid's green skin retracted so it went mostly under the large green hoodie that had to have been 'borrowed'- it was way too big for him, and the dark-haired girl's Enderman eye dulled to a simply brighter shade of black.

The red-haired girl's breath was coming in ever-increasing speeds that basically could be called 'hyperventilating'. " _ G-guys... I've got a headache... _ " she whimpered in pain, " _ it-it's getting worse... _ "

"This is exciting, but what does it have to do with us?" Em wondered. Jesse shrugged, looking just as bewildered. "Beats me."

Suddenly, all of the kids let out cries of pain, hands flying to their heads as they clutched at something they seemed to be feeling. A high-pitched sound was ringing in the background. " _ I-it hurts... _ " The burly boy whimpered, shaking violently, " _ wh-why-?! _ "

They were cut off as they suddenly jerked in place, before falling to the ground, momentarily convulsing before going perfectly still. The screen faded back out to black, and a deep voice began to speak. " _ Memories can be hidden. But no matter what, they cannot be destroyed, no matter how hard you try. Taken. Hidden. Swept under a mental carpet. But destroying a memory is like destroying nothing. You can't destroy nothing. It would only take ten years for these memories to resurface." _

There was a very long pause in which everyone wondered if the thing was over, when suddenly it started speaking again. " _ Nothing built can last forever, and every legend, no matter how great, fades with time. With each passing year, more and more details are lost, until all that remains are myths, half-truths. To put it simply - lies." _

The Order all glanced at each other for some reason as the screen panned into a room of what seemed to be books- it looked like a library.

_ "And yet, in all the known universe, from here to the Far Lands, the legend of the ORDER OF THE STONE endures, unabridged, as self-evident fact, _ " the narrator continued, the screen zooming in onto a book that flipped through the pages so fast that it sent white light spitting out over the screen.

_ "Indeed, it is only a troubled land that has any need for heroes. And ours was so very fortunate to have, not so very long ago, FOUR heroes such as these. _

_ "GABRIEL the Warrior, before whose blade all combatants would tremble in fear. _ " Gabriel appeared on the screen, running around on the screen with his sword, before spinning in place and slashing through an Enderman dummy that exploded into pieces. The Ocelots and Jace's group all applauded, and some of the other groups joined in after a couple seconds. After a second, Gabriel stood up and gave a hesitant bow.

_ "ELLEGAARD the Redstone Engineer, whose redstone creations would spark an era of invention. _ " Ellegaard was stooped on the ground, surrounded by redstone and pistons that were moving rapid-fire, looking around at them with goggles and helmet hiding her hair and eyes. Olivia applauded so hard that Jesse actually turned to glance at her, blinking innocently. Magnus shoved Ellegaard off the couch, making her glare at him, before giving her own bow to general applause and sitting back down.

_ "MAGNUS the Rogue, who would channel his destructive creativity for the benefit of us all." _ Magnus fired off a firework into the air, making it send sparks everywhere from his hand. The green-armored man leaped to his feet and swept a dramatic bow to the applause of the room without being prompted, before hopping back into his seat and very nearly squashing Ellegaard.

_ "And SOREN the Architect, builder of worlds, and leader of the Order of the Stone. _ " Soren was building something on a crafting table, before lifting it up to reveal an amulet with four crystals connected to a single dark blue one, a dark gray ring surrounding it. The architect stood up and bowed, before plopping back down into his seat.

_ "These FOUR friends, would give so much to be known as FOUR _ heroes." Ivor scowled at this a bit for some reason.

_ "Their most dangerous quest would take them on a perilous journey to fight a mysterious creature known as the Ender Dragon." _ The Order came to a stop in a place with strange yellow stone and obsidian towers, and looked up, before the shadow of a dragon flew across their face, a deep roar shaking the End. Dan leaned forward, looking extremely interested.

_ "In the end, the dragon was defeated, and the Order of the Stone emerged victorious." _ The Order was standing around the dragon, Gabriel standing on top of it. The camera slowly zoomed in on Gabriel as he lifted his sword into the air. _ "Their story complete, they slipped away into the pages of legend..." _ The screen turned back to black. Nell twisted from her spot in one of the armchairs to look at the Order. "Woah, you dudes did all that?"

"Indeed we did," Soren said, giving her a smile.

"Radical, dudes."

There was another pause, before the narrator spoke again, the screen coming back in on a poster of Gabriel's face. " _ But when one story ends, another one begins. _ " The screen lifted to show a familiar treehouse, the sounds of a female grunting during battle being heard along with the clattering of wood on wood.

Jace's eyes widened a little. Was that...?

" _ Would you rather fight a hundred chicken-sized zombies... _ " A familiar female voice sounded, before the camera switched to JESSE slashing away with a wooden sword at an armor stand. OLIVIA came into view, holding a handful of redstone dust. " _ Or ten zombie-sized chickens? _ "

"Oh my god!" Aiden's grin was so wide it was practically splitting his face. "Is that where you  _ live? _ It's a piece of crap!"

"Well, we like it," Jace snapped back. "And we worked hard on building it."

"Aww, did I hurt your feewings?" Gill asked in a babyish voice, the Ocelots all cracking up. Lukas looked uncomfortable and looked away as Jesse leaned her elbows on the coffee table, looking interested. "I like it. Treehouses are nice. But I wonder why I'm here? I've never met any of you before today..."

She glanced at them and gave them an apologetic shrug. "No offense- you seem really nice... Olivia, right? But, I just don't really know you..."

"None taken- I don't know you, either," Olivia responded, trying not to let her cheeks burn bright red at the insult.

"It's weird though... that was this morning, except, you know, with Jesse here. Was someone spying on us?" Jace asked, narrowing his eyes at the screen suspiciously.

Olivia shuddered. "I don't really want to think about it..."

" _ I'd have to go with the zombie-sized chickens, _ " Jesse responded thoughtfully to Olivia's question onscreen, eyes narrowing. " _ Not because I want to, or because I think it'd be easy... _ " She made a face that made Jace snort. She smacked him. " _ But because they would be an abomination." _

" _ Imagine their giant feet, _ " Olivia contributed.

Jesse grinned at the dark-skinned girl. " _ Like I said- an abomination. _ " She went back to whacking the armor stand with her sword, taking ahold of it by both hands this time.

Olivia trotted over to this shelf. " _ Sooo, I've got a daylight sensor on the roof," _ she said, glancing back at Jesse before placing it down.

" _ Mm-hm... _ "

" _ And if I did this right, these lamps should turn on once it gets dark, _ " Olivia said, still putting down the redstone.

Ellegaard let out a musing hum, as did Harper, Stampy, and Cassie, although theirs were much more quiet. "Not bad."

Olivia let out a gasp and tightened her grip on Jace's arm. Jace patted her on the back, putting a finger to his lips so they could keep watching.

" _ Mm-hm... _ " Now the audience was pretty sure Jesse wasn't even listening anymore.

Olivia glanced at Jesse. " _ I didn't want to leave Reuben with nothing while we were at the building competition- _ "

This brought the raven-haired girl back to attention as she twisted to see Olivia. " _ He's... coming with us? _ "

The screen lowered to show REUBEN nudging along the armor stand, letting out a loud squeal. Jesse raised her eyebrows and leaned her head on her cheek thoughtfully. "Hmmm, I think Jace and I switch places in this version? Maybe that's why I'm living at your place?"

The dark-skinned girl pinched her lips together thoughtfully. "Mm, maybe?"

" _ Really? _ "

Jesse turned around, sheathing the sword as she raised one eyebrow at the other girl. " _ What kind of question is that? Of course he is." _

Olivia put her hands up in surrender. " _ Okay- I'm not saying he shouldn't come. I'm not! _ "

Onscreen-Reuben snorted disbelievingly at this. This made Jesse grin and lean over to rub the pig's ears, the little pig grinning back at her cheerfully. Jace grinned and rubbed Reuben's head. "Aww, he likes you."

"I can see that," Jesse said teasingly, beginning to fondle his ears and making Reuben grumble with pleasure.

" _ But don't you think it's a little weird that you take him with you everywhere you go? _ " Olivia asked tentatively.

Jesse shrugged at this casually. " _ No, not really. No weirder than my left eye being darker than my right eye," _ the camera zoomed in on her eyes to show that the left eye was indeed darker than the other one. " _ Or your right eye being brighter than the other. _ " It zoomed in on Olivia's eyes.

Harper drew in a sharp breath at this that went nearly unheard, except for Ivor, who glanced at the woman.

" _ I didn't mean anything by it. I'm glad he's coming. It's just... I don't want to give people another reason to call us losers. I'm getting tired of it, _ " Olivia continued, decisively setting her hands on a bookshelf. It could effectively have been called her slamming her hands down. " _ I'm tired of being a laughingstock. _ "

"Too bad," Aiden drawled, "you're always going to be the Order of the Losers. It's just what you are, and you're not going to be able to change it, no matter what you do." Olivia ducked her head, her cheeks burning bright red.

Jesse hesitated, before simply shrugging. " _ Well, I don't think you're a loser. Besides, it's my pig- so if anyone's gonna call anyone a loser, I will gladly take all of the insults. I'll own them and make them a part of my armor. That way, _ " and she shrugged again, " _ No one can use that against me. _ "

Hadrian let out a low whistle. "That was deep, sport." He sounded noncommittal, and Jesse blinked at him from where she was crouched. "Oh... thanks?"

Olivia blinked at Jesse onscreen, seemingly unsure about what to say, before a smile made its way across her lips. " _ Thanks, Jesse. _ "

Jesse shot her a thumbs-up and a grin, before a hissing sound began. Olivia went 'ah' and Jace just nodded. Axel grinned.

"Is that what I think it is?" Sparklez asked, eyes widening a little, "in the daytime?"

" _ Do you hear that...? _ " Jesse turned and trotted over to the trapdoor, eyes narrowing.

Olivia's own eyes widened. " _ Oh  _ no _." _

The trapdoor burst open, and a creeper exploded out of the trapdoor (not literally). " _ BOO! _ "

Onscreen, Olivia, Jesse, and Reuben all screamed. Ivor let out a loud squeak, Petra slammed her back into her armchair enough to make it tilt back and fall back forward, Harper flinched, the three gladiators all let out a yell, the three brightly dressed ones jumped violently and conked heads, Magnus nearly slapped Ellegaard and Soren in the face, Gabriel winced violently, Nell jumped behind Em, the YouTubers all fell off of the couch in a mess, accidentally yanking Cassie down with them, Jesse shrieked in shock, Lukas recoiled and conked his head right against Aiden's, both boys letting out a shout and grabbing at their foreheads, while Maya practically jumped into Gill's arms.

Axel, Olivia, Jace, and Reuben just sat there watching calmly.

The creeper laughed and tugged off to reveal AXEL, grinning at the whole group. " _ Oh man! You guys totally freaked out! That was awes- _ " he was cut off by Reuben angrily head-butting him with a squeal.

" _ Axel-! _ " Olivia seemed to be trying to find the appropriate words. " _ What's the  _ matter _ with you?! _ " she finally blurted angrily.

Axel seemed preoccupied. " _ Great," _ he grumbled, " _ now I'm going to smell like a pig at Endercon. I thought we were buddies! _ "

Jesse's hand was resting on her heart. " _ Just what you deserve, _ " she teased him, but her hands were still trembling from the shock of the trapdoor practically exploding in her face. " _ Cool mask, though. _ "

"Incredibly cool mask," Axel agreed.

" _ It is, isn't it? _ " Onscreen-Axel asked, grinning at her.

Jesse placed her hands on her hips. " _ Yeah- very convincing."  _ She shot him a joking glare, before letting her hands drop and laughing.

Olivia seemed less happy to let it go, but she changed the subject anyway. " _ Did you bring the fireworks? _ "

"What are you building?" Mevia asked, her arms crossed across her midriff from the scare.

Jace answered, stretching to answer them. "A fireworks machine, with an Enderman on top."

Soren practically jumped out of his seat to pump his fists in the air, startling Magnus enough to knock him off the couch. " _ Yes! _ "

This prompted several amused snorts from the audience.

" _ Yes, I'm ready," _ Axel laughed, " _ waiting on you guys." _

Olivia smiled before moving to start going down the ladder. " _ We'll meet you and Reuben downstairs, okay?" _

Jesse grinned back at her. " _ Okay! _ " she said brightly.

The trapdoor shut. Jesse turned around- and then gasped, grabbing at her head, as the scenery around her seemed to throb. " _ O-ow..." _

"Whoa, what? What's going on?" Jace asked, straightening up with narrowing eyes, "this didn't happen before."

Reuben let out a worried whine onscreen. Jesse began to massage her forehead with her fingers insistently, but black spots began to form and grow in her vision instead.

The screen faded back in to the little girl with extra arms watching a trapdoor shut, trembling in fear as a monster slowly rose to meet her gaze- a monster with three heads.

"Whoa, whoa- is that a Wither?!" Lizzie exclaimed, eyes widening.

A fiery skull fired at the little girl.

Said little girl screamed in fear and lunged sideways, the audience all holding their breaths inadvertently at this part, the skull plowing into the floor and making a crater upon impact. As the Wither approached her again, the girl whirled around on the spot and lashed out in a sort of blocking motion, a long white string soaring out and hitting the Wither.

The little girl's green-and-red eyes flared before all of her limbs started moving, and the girl moved around the room rapidly until the Wither was swathed in white strings, cocooned quite firmly amongst sticky white strings, looking like the world's biggest, most elaborate spiderweb.

"That was so cool!" Nell cheered. Em let out an annoyed sigh at this.

The little girl panted, watching the monster warily, before slowly going over to it and putting her mouth on it. For a moment, her teeth slipped and slid as she was trying to put her jaws around it, the audience watching in confusion- before suddenly her jaws actually sank in, canines sharpening to razor-sharp tips moments before they sank into the Wither's head. It jerked, before the Wither exploded into smoke.

"Cool," Nell, Axel, and Magnus chorused, making several of the watchers look at them.

Immediately, the little girl spit violently, trying to get something out of her mouth. A dark, muddyish colored substance spewed out from between her lips and splattered the floor, over the Nether Star that had dropped onto the ground.

A hand dropped on her shoulder, making the little girl let out a cry of alarm. " _ Good work. You performed admirably. _ "

The scene zoomed back out to reveal Jesse panting, still clutching at her head with her chest slowly heaving and calming down. "... that was... really weird," she murmured, before she knelt down in front of a chest that she'd come to, glancing up.

At a picture of a little girl who looked very much like the one they'd just seen.

Everyone's eyes widened and turned to look at Jesse, who looked very much surprised herself, before looking back at the screen, where Jesse was staring at the picture, her eyes narrowing.  _ "... but... I'm not a spider hybrid," _ she told herself, firmly.

She stood up from the chest, hands holding the flint and steel, before pausing and glancing down at herself once again.

_ "... am I?" _


	4. Normal

Onscreen, Jesse looked down at herself with a sigh. " _ Okay... no extra legs or limbs or anything in sight. So I definitely can't be a spider hybrid. Definitely not. Nope. No possible way _ ." She stared down at herself, before slowly her hands moved to pat herself on the sides. " _ And... yet, I'm checking anyway. I'm not a spider hybrid, so there's no need to..." _

She paused. "...  _ to _ ..."

"What? Did she find something?" Magnus asked, leaning forward. The redstone engineer smacked him on the back of the head, making him go "Ow" and glare at her. "Why don't you wait and see?" she responded, ignoring his glare.

This time, as she patted herself down, her hands moved more slowly, and her dungarees stretched a little bit. "...  _ yep, no doubt about it, there are some bumps there. ... they're not... too noticeable... right, Reuben? _ " The black-haired girl looked up at the pig, who squealed and shook his head.

"They really aren't," Stacy pointed out. "I think the only reason she noticed them was because she started patting herself down."

"Yeah, I'm getting that feeling, too," Jesse hummed thoughtfully."

She looked back down at herself. "...  _ well, I sure hope it stays that way. _ "

She took a deep breath, before stooping down and scooping Reuben up, descending the ladder and landing back on the ground, setting the little pink pig back down as well.

Olivia smiled at her. " _ Got everything? _ "

Jesse nodded and folded her hands behind her back. " _ Yeah, _ " she said, with a bright-looking smile.

"She's faking it."

Everyone glanced at Otto, who simply put his hand up in surrender. "I'm only saying..."

" _ Let's roll _ ," Axel said, waving his hand a bit. Olivia rolled her eyes at the large burly male, a smile playing across her mouth. " _ Yeah, dude-  _ roll," she responded teasingly.

Jesse laughed at this and rolled her eyes, the smile relaxing into a more natural one. " _ Let's  _ go," she chuckled teasingly, before the four of them set off.

" _ I heard a pretty juicy rumor about the building competition, but you guys have to promise not to say anything, _ " Axel warned them. Olivia shrugged at this. " _ Okay. _ "

" _ Also, it's in two parts, each part more exciting than the last- _ "

Jesse shoved him gently with a laugh. " _ Spit it out, Axel! _ "

"Are you and Jace that close in real life?" Jesse asked the burly boy, turning from where she was sitting to see him. He looked over at her and nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I guess we're that close in this 'alternative path' thing, too."

Jesse tilted her head, before nodding and smiling at him. "I think I'm okay with that."

Axel and Olivia exchanged faintly surprised looks at this.

" _ Part one. The special guest at this year's Endercon is none other than Gabriel the Warrior him-freaking-self! _ " Axel declared, waving his arms in the air.

"You idiot!" Aiden laughed, "those posters were all over town for weeks!"

Olivia glared back at him. "Well, we didn't know that! Jace- and I guess Jesse- and I live in the woods, we don't go into town all that much."

Jesse's eyes widened. " _ Whoooaaaaa! _ " she dragged out the 'whoa', before asking, eyes sparkling, " _ what's part two? _ "

" _ Part two. According to my sources- _ "

The Ocelots snorted.

" _ The winner of the building competition's gonna get to meet him! _ "

Jesse's mouth fell open, and Olivia gasped.

" _ It doesn't mean anything if we lose, _ " Axel continued, almost dismissively, " _ but if we win... oh man, this would make up for all the losing. _ "

"Yeah, right! There's no way you're gonna-"

"Aiden, was it? For the love of Notch,  _ be quiet! _ " Ivor snapped at the boy.

Jesse nodded in agreement to Axel's comment. " _ Meeting Gabriel would be a dream and an honor _ ."

"Thank you, my friend," Gabriel said with a nod in the two Jesse's direction. The girl simply shrugged with a smile, while Jace grinned back.

" _ Totally, _ " Olivia nodded, " _ he's awesome- it'd be amazing to meet him. _ "

She paused, looking around, before looking back at Axel. " _ Soo, does this 'source' of yours make posters for a living? _ "

The screen switched to show Endercon posters and signs about tickets being sold out. Aiden snorted, but said nothing when literally two-thirds of the audience shot him looks.

" _ Yeah, _ " Axel admitted sheepishly, " _ my source, uhh... doesn't, um... exist. You guys are my only friends. _ "

" _ Guys _ ," Jesse jogged them both with her elbow, smiling,  _ "let's stay focused... we have a competition to win." _

Olivia sighed at this. " _ We never win. And this year we've got Reuben with us. We basically have no chance _ ."

Jesse blinked at the pink pig, before leaning over to look at the dark-skinned girl sitting next to Axel. " _ What does that have to do with it _ ?" she asked, curiously.

Onscreen, Jesse seemed to be deep in thought. "...  _ wait a second-  _ wait a second _ \- we're thinking about this all wrong _ ," she said abruptly.

" _ How's that _ ?" Olivia asked, coming to a stop in the forest, looking around at each other.

" _ The point of the building competition isn't just to build- something. You have to do something to get noticed by the judges _ !" Jesse exclaimed, flinging her arms wide.

"Oh, here comes the great idea!" Jace joked, making Jesse snort a bit next to him.

Olivia put her hands onto her hips. " _ Okay then... so, how do we do this _ ?"

" _ We don't just build something functional- we build something fun _ !" Jesse said cheerfully.

Soren hummed thoughtfully. "Not a bad idea. Judges do tend to go for creative builds."

" _ After finishing the fireworks machine, like we planned, we build something really cool on top of it!" _ Jesse exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"You're a cheerful person, aren't you?" Cassie asked the girl. Jesse twisted to see her and gave her a shrug and a grin. "Well, I try to be."

" _ You might be onto something _ ," Olivia said, grinning at Jesse.

Axel spoke up himself, drawing the group's attention to him. " _ If we want to get a reaction out of the judges... you build something scary. So I say we build a creeper _ -"

Olivia nearly cut him off. " _ Wouldn't an Enderman be better? I'm more scared of Endermen than creepers." _

" _ They both have their moments... both pretty scary _ ," Axel murmured thoughtfully.

"Go for the Endermen!" Soren exclaimed, nearly falling out of his chair. Magnus gently punched him on the shoulder. "No, no, go with the creeper!"

" _ Okay _ ," Jesse spoke up, " _ let's go for the Enderman _ ."

Soren pumped his fist and gave off a near-silent " _ yessss _ " which had most of the audience smothering smiles at this.

" _ Awww... Olivia's thing _ ?" Axel complained. Olivia put one hand on her hip and raised her eyebrow at him, smiling. " _ Are you  _ **_whining_ ** _? _ " she asked him teasingly.

" _ No _ ," Axel responded defensively,  _ "I was saying 'awwwwesome' _ ."

Jesse snickered playfully at him.  _ "Suuuure ya were _ ," she said, her grin not fading even when he playfully shoved her.

" _ Think we've got everything we need _ ?" Olivia asked, putting one hand on her hip.

Jesse tilted her head thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. " _ Mmm, it wouldn't hurt to grab a little more." _

_ "Let's get to grabbin', then _ !" Axel declared.

Everyone put their hands into the center of a circle automatically. " _ Okay... 'dare to prepare' on three. No, wait, 'preparing is daring', nope, that's the same- you know what, forget it. 'Team' on three. One, two, three-" _

Olivia and Jesse shouted " _ TEAM _ !" while Axel, having gotten a bit muddled up, called out " _ Prepare _ !" All of them grinned at each other before running off into the forest.

The screen switched to show Jesse, slowing her run into the forest with her grin slowly fading into a more concerned look. She looked down at herself again with a worried sigh.

She stayed in that position for a moment, before furiously shaking her head. " _ Nope nope nope. Stop the stressing, Jesse! _ " She pumped her fists and jumped up and down a couple times, looking down at Reuben. " _ C'mon, Reuben- we should get some more wool _ !"

And the two of them dashed off into the forest.

The camera switched to Olivia punching through a tree. She drew her fist back, before slamming through it. The block flipped into the air, and seemingly on instinct, the girl reached up with both hands and caught it.

Immediately, her slightly slouchy posture erected itself, her arms sprang perfectly stiff, and she shuddered violently. Olivia stood there for a moment, staring at the block, blinking bemusedly at it.

_ "... this feels nice. Why does this feel nice? You know what, I'm just- nope _ ," and she slowly unlocked her arms and placed the block in her pocket before walking offscreen, putting her hands up in surrender and shaking her head. " _ Nope, nope, nope _ ."

There was a moment where Ellegaard sucked in a deep breath, eyes widening. "Oh-  _ oh _ ."

Axel came onscreen, his own grin fading. He took a shaky breath, before slowly pulling one sleeve up.

Everyone's jaw fell open at the sight of Axel's arm- it was a strange, mottled green color.

" _ Okay... it's still there. Okay. Okay _ !" The burly boy's voice had actually risen an octave. " _ This is- this is fine. I'll just keep this on and- and I'll be totally fine. Yeah _ ."

Yanking his hoodie sleeve back down and taking another deep breath, he went marching through the forest.

The camera switched again to show LUKAS onscreen, dropping a little behind MAYA, GILL, and AIDEN, who were laughing about something and shoving each other around gently.

"Whoa- hey, that's us!" Maya exclaimed, raising one hand to point at the screen in surprise.

Lukas reached up to rub his head with a wry smile- and then froze. His eyes widened in shock. He slowed to a stop, his hand still resting on his head. Slowly, he rubbed his head again.

" _ Hey, Lukas, you okay _ ?"

He blinked to see Aiden and the others turning to see him, pausing where they were on the path.

" _ Y-yeah _ ." The blonde forced a small smile. " _ Sorry. Just... lost in thought is all. Haha." _ He started walking after his friends again, his hair momentarily twitching before he disappeared offscreen.

"Did I just imagine that, or-"

Petra was cut off by Lukas's bewildered comment. "Did my hair just twitch...? No. You didn't imagine that..."

PETRA appeared onscreen, staring down at something with squinty eyes.  _ "... okay _ ." She took a deep breath and reached up with her right hand and rubbed her temple. " _ I am okay with my eyes being gold. However _ ," and the screen zoomed out to reveal her arm, which had a strange gold tint to it. " _ I kinda draw the line here at a gold arm." _

Most of the audience stared, before turning to look at Petra. Petra's expression was no less disturbed than the one she had onscreen.

She poked at it with her free hand, face becoming even more bothered by this. There was a full minute of silence where she stared at her arm before reaching up and tugging down her long sleeve-glove-thing over it, covering up the gold-tinted arm. " _ Okay... this is okay. It's not a big deal. Today is just... one of those days." _

She stood up and swung her pickaxe up so it rested on her shoulder, before taking a deep breath and trotting out of the cave.

The screen faded out to black.

"I wonder what's going to happen next..." Cassie mused.

"Yeah, and what's going on with Lukas and Petra," Axel murmured, leaning his cheek into his hand. "I mean, it's pretty obvious that Jesse's a spider, Olivia's an Enderman, and I'm a creeper... but beyond that, I'm not entirely sure."

Mumbled assent from the rest of the audience.


	5. Ocelots and Insults

The screen came back on to Axel talking, enthusiastically, his grin back on his face. " _ We know what we're building, we've got all the stuff for it - we are so ready." _

" _ This year, it's gonna be different, _ " Olivia said, more optimistically than before. " _ I'm not just ready to build- I'm ready to win." _

Some random guy wearing a hat walked by. " _ Nice pig... losers. _ "

Harper raised her eyebrow. "Well, that was... rude."

"This is why I don't like people," Soren grumbled quietly, although it was loud enough that the rest of the Order heard it.

The group came to a stop, Jesse sending a glare in his direction and Axel and Olivia looking away awkwardly. The entrance to the building competition came into view, where four people in black leather jackets with ocelot heads on the back were signing in.

" _ Oh, great. It's Lukas and the Ocelots. The rivalry continues, _ " Axel groaned.

Lukas raised his eyebrow while Aiden's face darkened. "I thought we were just Ocelots..." the blonde mumbled, sounding genuinely surprised at this.

The screen moved over their backs, giving them a good view of the ocelot heads on the back.

" _ Man... they've got matching leather jackets and everything," _ Olivia murmured.

" _ So cool.. _ ." Axel said wistfully.

The Ocelots all grinned at each other smugly, snickering. Olivia glanced away, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment. Axel rubbed his arm awkwardly and looked at the ceiling.

"Well, that's true... they are cool." Jesse leaned over backwards to see the Ocelots, Jace tittering at the awkward backward bending she was doing to see the group. "Nice jackets, you guys."

The Ocelots all blinked at this- they seemed genuinely surprised by the comment.

Onscreen, Aiden turned around, a smirk coming across his face. " _ Well, well, well _ ," he sneered, making Maya and Gill turn around with grins. Lukas kept talking to the woman at the booth. " _ If it isn't the Order of the Losers." _

"That's... not a very creative insult," Mevia said, arching one eyebrow.

" _ Great _ ," Maya smirked, " _ the fail squad's here _ ."

Onscreen, Jesse let out a low sigh, her arms dangling at her sides.

" _ Lukas," _ Gill sniggered, " _ get a look at these losers." _

Lukas glanced at Jesse for a moment, before looking away again. " _ Let's go, guys," _ he said quietly. Gill and Maya followed, Aiden giving them one last sneer before following. The woman at the booth smiled pleasantly at them. " _ Name, please. _ "

The burly green boy picked at his sleeve awkwardly. " _ Axel, and, uh, how do you do _ ?"

This prompted a couple snorts from the audience.

" _ No, your team name _ ," the woman said, after a moment of looking at him to make sure he wasn't messing around.

Jesse's eyes were faintly glazed over, her arms fidgeting at her sides, and she said mildly, " _ We're the Bureau of Amalgamology _ ."

Immediately, she, Olivia, Axel, and Lukas, who was still in earshot, went perfectly rigid, eyes widening at the sound of the name. There was a pause before Jesse slowly relaxed again, blinking. " _ Um- yeah, that's- that's our team name, _ " she continued, eyes still slightly wide.

"I wonder what the 'Bureau of Amalgamology' is," Cassie mused.

"And why it caused that reaction," Isa hummed thoughtfully.

Olivia shrugged it off, her shoulders relaxing. " _ It's an interesting one... and it's not really like people can make fun of it. _ "

Axel nodded with a "yep", Jesse quickly nodding afterwards. " _ E-exactly why I chose it." _

"I get the feeling you're fibbing there," Jace said to Jesse. Jesse let out a bark of laughter at this.

Onscreen, Jesse sent Lukas a look as he regained his composure and followed after his team, but didn't press it.

" _ Okay, Bureau of Amalgamology, _ " the woman said perkily, " _ you guys are in Booth 5! _ "

Axel went first, but he got stuck in the gate and struggled before he was able to make his way through.

"Aww, man," Axel mumbled, rubbing the back of his head and wincing slightly. Petra winced sympathetically at this as well.

Olivia followed after that, then Jesse and Reuben, ignoring the way the Ocelots were sniggering at this little mishap. They made their way over to Booth 5, where Axel was already standing, practically standing on his tiptoes to see what was happening. " _ Is that a beacon _ ?"

"Are you jealous?" Gill mocked, grinning at him. Axel glowered back. "You wish, pussycat."

" _ They have a freaking beacon?! _ " His voice was rising in both volume and pitch again. " _ Freakin'... beacon?! _ "

It had just reached hysterical pitch when Olivia groaned. " _ They're not just building a beacon... they're building a rainbow beacon!" _

"You're totally jealous!" Maya shot back.

" _ We're gonna lose _ ," Olivia finished after a moment.

Jesse thought for a moment, before responding at length, " _ W-we got this, guys." _

Olivia threw her hands in the air. " _ Who are we kidding? We've got nothing. _ "

Jesse tilted her head thoughtfully for a moment. " _ We've got... a... mascot, _ " she finally stated, making Reuben perk up with a squeal of pleasure.

"A mascot would be kind of cool," Lukas hummed mildly, "like a trained ocelot or something."

"You're  _ agreeing _ with them?!" Aiden practically shouted. Lukas gave the brunette boy a weird look. "What? I'm just saying."

Olivia rolled her eyes with a grin at this. " _ All right... we should probably stop staring _ ," she stated, just as Gill sneered, " _ Oh look! It's the Order of the Losers- again." _

"Too late!" Jace joked feebly.

" _ Good one, Gill _ !" Maya chuckled. Aiden turned around, another sneer coming over his face.

"He's kind of a jerk, isn't he?" Em muttered so that only Nell could hear. The blonde nodded slightly and whispered back. "Totally, brah."

" _ We were just looking," _ Olivia deadpanned.

" _ There'll be plenty of time for you to look at it once it wins and gets shown at Endercon _ !" Aiden bragged.

"Pride comes before a fall," Ellegaard said mildly to nobody in particular.

Axel hissed at Aiden, eyes narrowing. " _ You're being unpleasant. _ "

" _ Well, maybe not ALL of you- _ " and Aiden leered down at Reuben. " _ Endercon doesn't allow outside food or drink." _

Reuben let out an offended squeal at that.

"Okay, that was NOT cool," Jesse said, twisting to frown at Aiden. The brown-haired boy blinked at her, once again looking surprised.

Jesse's hands clenched into fists, and she glared at him without saying a word.

" _ I mean, look at him! He looks delicious _ ," and Aiden leered at Reuben, " _ I could eat him right now. _ "

"Yeah, that wasn't weird at all," Petra muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes at this comment. This prompted several snorts from the members of the audience that heard her.

Jesse blinked, her hands slowly unclenching. " _ That sounded like a bizarre compliment _ ," she told him, blinking in faint confusion at him.

Axel stepped in front of Reuben. " _ You're going to have to eat me first _ ," he defended.

"Should you be encouraging them?" StampyCat wondered.

Olivia avoided either contact with either of them. " _ Let's, uh.. let's hope it doesn't come to that." _

_ "Cut it out, Aiden, _ " and the blonde looked up from the chest, annoyance playing in his eyes. " _ We've got work to do." _

Jesse shot Aiden a smug smirk. He smirked back. " _ You're lucky I'm busy. _ "

Before anything else could be said, Petra strolled up to them, her pickaxe resting on her shoulder. " _ Hey guys, _ " she said lightly. Jesse's faint glare relaxed into a grin. " _ Hey, Petra _ ," she responded in greeting.

"Petra!" Jace cheered, making the redhead grin at him.

Petra rubbed her left arm a bit and arched her brow. " _ How's the build going _ ?"

" _ Only time will tell, but, we're optimistic _ ," Axel responded.

"You don't sound very optimistic," Jesse told him. This prompted several giggles, snorts, and sniggers from the audience, Axel smothering his incredibly amused grin.

" _ Hey, Petra _ -" and Lukas walked forwards towards the redhead, " _ I forgot to thank you for that Nether Star. _ "

Petra smiled a bit at Lukas. " _ Hey, Lukas... not a problem _ -"

She was cut off by Axel, who blurted, looking rather displeased, " _ You HELPED these tools? _ "

Petra arched her eyebrow at him. " _ For the right price... I'll help anyone." _ She started walking towards the forest. " _ If you need me, you'll know where to find me." _

_ "Uh, nobody knows where to find you, _ " Olivia called after her.

" _ Exactly, _ " Petra responded, vanishing into the trees.

A soft cough from Lukas drew the camera's attention back to him. " _ No hard feelings, guys... if you're cool with Petra _ ," and he batted at his blonde hair momentarily, " _ you're cool with us. _ "

"By 'us' do you mean 'you'?" Jesse asked, twisting to look at the blonde. He blinked at her in return.

" _ So why don't we just forget about all this and... make this about how cool our builds are? _ " Lukas offered tentatively.

Everyone automatically looked at Jesse. The dark-haired girl regarded him for a few moments, silently, before responding lightly, " _ May the best team win. _ "

Lukas perked up a bit at that. " _ Careful what you wish for, _ " he joked a bit, and grinned at her.

Jesse's lips twitched slightly, as if she was repressing a smile. " _ We'll see about that _ ."

Gill's eyes narrowed. "Are you flirting with him?" he wondered aloud all of a sudden.

Jesse started so hard that her arms rammed into the coffee table, making several audience members wince sympathetically. "Wh-?! Where in the world d-did that come from?!" she exclaimed, her cheeks pinking slightly. " _ No! _ I literally just met him!"

Lukas coughed awkwardly, looking at the ceiling with his own cheeks a faint pink tint.


	6. Reflexive Shock

" _Ladies and gentlemen,_ " the woman from the booth called, drawing everyone's attention to her, " _Welcome to the Endercon Building Competition!_ " She was received with a round of cheering. " _The winners of this year's competition will have their build featured at Endercon. The winners will also meet, in person, Gabriel the Warrior!"_

Olivia threw her arms into the air with a grin. Axel pumped his fist, and Jesse hopped up and down and clapped.

" _Ocelots!_ " The group turned to see the Ocelots doing some sort of elaborate handshake.

" _Whoa... handshake?_ " Olivia turned to Jesse and Axel, " _we don't have a handshake_."

Jesse hummed and shrugged. " _Well, I always considered our 'hands in the middle' thing being a sort of handshake_ ," she responded mildly. The other two nodded and conceded the point, all of them extending their hands so they were all in the middle.

" _Let's do it_ ," Axel said, eyes shining with determination.

" _Building-_ " Olivia braced herself. "- _starts_ -" Axel reached for the blocks in his pocket. " _Now!_ " Jesse patted Reuben on the head with a grin, before all of them rushed to the center of the booth.

The screen sped up as they built so that the fireworks machine was done in a matter of seconds.

" _Oh no! A fireworks dispenser_!" Aiden mocked onscreen, Lukas sending him an annoyed glance upon seeing the brunette. " _I'm so scared_!"

Jesse gasped and clapped her hands to her cheeks in shock, making Axel and Olivia glance around at her. " _Oh no! Aiden, quick, check your face, I just found your nose in our business!"_

Jesse let out an explosive laugh at this. " _Ha!_ Best comeback _ever!_ " she joked through her giggles. Axel, Olivia, and Jace were trying to smother irrepressible grins, Reuben was grinning, Petra was chuckling, Milo was chuckling, Isa and Reginald could barely hide their grins, Harper was smiling mulishly, the Order members were giggling, Ivor was cracking a grin, the YouTubers were making these odd faces in an attempt to not laugh, Hadrian, Mevia and Otto were all grinning, and even Cassie was having a hard time not smiling. Even Lukas seemed faintly amused by this. In fact, the only person not amused by that scene was Aiden.

Onscreen, Axel and Olivia snickered before dropping back to the ground. The screen sped up again as they built the Enderman, before Jesse walked to the edge of it and looked around at the various builds. The most impressive one by far seemed to be the Ocelots', which was made up of lots of various colored blocks and redstone repeaters.

"Would anyone be angry at me if I said I have no idea what some of those builds are?" Jace asked, watching with his elbow resting on the coffee table.

There was a moment's pause where everyone considered this, before most shrugged or shook their heads at him.

"Then I have no clue what some of those builds are."

Axel and Jesse turned to Olivia onscreen, the dark skinned girl approaching a lever on her right. Jesse took a deep breath and clapped her hands together. "A _nd now... the moment of truth."_

" _Here goes nothing_ ," Olivia said, none too optimistically, before toggling the lever. Immediately, fireworks soared into the sky above and detonated, showering multicolored sparkles everywhere.

"All right! That looks awesome!" Jace cheered, throwing his arms into the air and nearly smacking Jesse in the face by accident.

"We're totally gonna win!" Axel high-fived Olivia over Jace's head, before extending his hand to Jesse. Jesse looked at it for a moment, before back up at him. He gestured a bit, grinning. "You helped build it," he explained, indicating the screen.

Jesse blinked, before a slow smile came over her face and she reached out to slap his hand back.

" _Man... this looks so cool_!" Olivia exclaimed, looking around. " _We'll win this for sure_."

Axel nodded, grinning slightly. " _I gotta admit it, this Enderman is sweet._ " He patted the black-haired girl on the back. " _Good call, Jesse._ "

Below them, people were starting to approach the build, talking and pointing with excitement. Jesse leaned over to look at them, before turning to look at her friends, green eyes sparkling with excitement. " _Guys... people are looking at us~_ " She trailed off in a sing-songy tone that made the two of them grin at her.

" _Good build, man!_ " The guy who'd called them losers before called up.

Jesse, Jace, Olivia, and Axel grinned at each other in excitement. Aiden's eyebrows knit together in a scowl.

" _What? No way..._ " Aiden said in disbelief, looking up at the Enderman, before stomping his feet. " _It's just a bunch of dyed wool_!"

Soren rubbed the back of his head with an awkward cough. "Comparing it to a lot of the other builds there...? It's pretty good."

Looking around, Aiden spotted a block that held back some lava and smashed right through it with a single hit. " _Whoops_!"

"Aiden!" Lukas exclaimed, eyes widening as he twisted to glare at his friend.

"What the hell, man?!" Petra shouted, bolting upright.

Stacy winced. "That- that was _not cool_."

"You could seriously hurt someone!" Isa exclaimed, straightening up and squeezing Benedict hard enough to make the chicken let out a complaining squawk.

The lava spilled forward, straight towards Reuben, who was sitting and watching. It hit his tail, and Reuben immediately sprang up with a frightened squeal and ran off in the direction of the woods. Onscreen, Jesse's head snapped around instantly. " _Reuben!_ " she yelled.

Jace twisted around and glared at Aiden. "You hurt my pig!"

Aiden simply shrugged, grinning. "I said whoops."

Jace launched himself to his feet, accidentally dumping Reuben into Jesse's lap, and grabbed the nearest thing he could find- a book- and hurled it at Aiden, making the brunette boy's eyes widen as he ducked out of the way and everyone else's eyes widen at this sudden display of violence from the previously mild-tempered Jace. "You- you-" The boy was so enraged he stuttered for a moment before spitting out, "you _piece of crap!_ "

"Jace, stop!" The mocha-haired boy stopped upon a hand closing around his wrist, and he looked down to see Jesse patting a very affronted-looking Reuben and holding his wrist. "He's not worth it."

" _Oh no- Reuben's on fire!_ " Jesse cried onscreen, before flailing her hands in a wave at the pig. " _Reuben, NO! Come back!_ "

Axel's eyes darkened. " _It was Aiden- that punk_!" he practically spat in rage, gesturing at the brown-haired boy backing away from the lava.

" _The lava's getting closer_!" Olivia cried out.

" _It's gonna destroy the build!"_

" _Reuben's gonna get lost!"_

Jesse glanced back at Olivia, who dropped her gaze automatically. " _You guys stay and save the build!_ " she ordered, before leaping down and landing in a perfect parkour roll, plowing right into Aiden and knocking him over, sprinting off into the forest.

" _We'll meet up with you at Endercon_!" Olivia yelled back, jumping to the ground and starting to put up blocks to block the lava from getting any closer. The screen faded to black.

Petra immediately got to her feet and stalked towards the Ocelot's couch, stepping so precisely that it was very clear to see, even to the people who'd never met her before, that she was pissed off beyond belief. "Okay, that was _not cool._ You didn't like that their build was getting more attention than yours and decided to _sabotage_ it, hurting Reuben in the process."

Aiden shrugged. "Oh, come on, Petra! It's just a dumb pig."

"What might be a 'dumb pig' to you might be something downright precious to someone else," Jesse snapped at him, green eyes practically burning into him and making him blink- up until then she'd seemed pretty mild.

Jace picked up the next part. "Even if Reuben _was_ dumb, that doesn't give you an excuse to hurt him because you were jealous of our build."

"I wasn't jealous!" Aiden argued, jumping to his feet.

Petra shoved him back down as Mevia snarked back, "It was pretty obvious you didn't like that they were getting positive attention and you weren't. That's called 'jealousy' most of the time, if you didn't know that."

Aiden crossed his arms and glared at the three girls, remaining silent. Petra looked over at the blonde Ocelot, eyes narrowing. "I don't get why you hang out with them, Lukas- you might be kind of arrogant sometimes, but you're not a bully."

Lukas didn't say anything in response to that. Petra finally returned to her seat as the screen faded back in, Jesse holding a carrot and waving it around as she looked around, the forest already looking rather dark.

Lizzie glared at Aiden. "And look, you made her stay out after dark! I don't think she has a weapon to defend herself with, either!"

" _Reuben_?" Jesse called out onscreen before Aiden could possibly defend himself, waggling the carrot around. " _I've got a carrot for ya!"_

Some tall grass rustled, making Jesse start back, before she slowly approached it. Reuben was visible through the long strands of grass, shivering. Jace let out a long sigh of relief.

Jesse's eyes lit up. " _Reuben! There you are_!"

The pig trotted out, whimpering softly. Jesse stooped down, holding the carrot out to the pig with a warm smile on her face. " _Hey, buddy. Ya want a carrot?"_ she asked, the pink pig letting out a happy squeal and munching down on it.

Jesse let out a long sigh of relief and rubbed her face. " _Oh, I am SO happy to see you!"_

Reuben grinned at her. " _C'mon, we've got a long way to-_ "

A chorus of groans interrupted her. The screen switched to show zombies blocking the way she'd come from and slowly lurching forwards. Olivia let out a gasp and covered her eyes in alarm.

"Well... nice knowing you, sport," Hadrian stated slowly.

" _Reuben, run!"_ And the two of them took off in the opposite direction, running away from the zombies at top speed before coming to a spot where there was nothing dangerous. Reuben let out an alarmed squeal, and Jesse slowed to a stop as she looked down, before letting out her own gasp.

The bumps that had been on her sides were starting to poke out and stretch her clothing. Jesse bit her lip, and slowly the bumps seemed to curl back in.

She let out a soft, relieved sigh, before a soft hissing hit her ears, and she jerked her head back up to come face-to-face with a creeper. " _GAH_!" she shrieked, as lots of members of the audience jumped.

Jesse and Reuben tore off again, before coming to a stop near this cavern mouth. " _I think... I think we're okay..."_

"Annnnd she jinxed it," Petra called out.

An arrow impaled the wall next to her, making the raven-haired girl shriek in fright as she twisted to see a skeleton aiming at her again.

"Called it."

She lunged sideways, dodging the arrow just in time. The two of them bolted again, only to run straight into a dead end. Jesse looked around, turning around to face the opening of the clearing she'd just run into. " _Oh no... oh no no no..._ " she mumbled, yanking out her wooden sword.

" _She's... gonna die, isn't she?_ " Em asked flatly.

" _Stay behind me, buddy,_ " Jesse said shakily. Reuben let out an affirmative whine and shrank down behind her. The girl turned to smile encouragingly at him, before her expression darkened, and she whirled around and let out a loud yell, lashing out with her wooden sword. She knocked right into a zombie, before swiping it twice more and knocking it over, driving the wooden blade into its skull and making it explode into smoke.

Slicing off the head of another zombie, and swinging out to knock another one back, she managed to keep the zombie at bay, before she took ahold of the blade with both hands. With a loud yell, she brought the sword right down, making the zombie puff right into smoke.

The moment the sword made impact with the zombie's head, it cracked, making the wooden blade do a slow, lazy 360 in the air before clattering to the ground, disappearing into smoke a moment later. The hilt followed suit a couple of seconds later.

Olivia, who'd started to peek back up, let out a yelp and buried her head back into her hands.

" _Stupid- wooden swords!_ " Jesse groaned, backing away a few steps. She looked down at Reuben as they continued backing away. " _I know it's bad..._ "

"Incredibly bad," CaptainSparklez contributed.

" _I'll- I'll think of something."_

"I'd better," Jesse mumbled, fondling Reuben's ears absentmindedly. Reuben was so absorbed in the screen that he didn't even nuzzle into her hand.

Jesse paused, before leaning down to look at Reuben. " _You're gonna have to make a run for it, okay Reuben?_ " she asked the pig softly. " _I'll meet you back at Endercon, okay? I promise."_

Reuben shook his head at her, whining. Jesse said, in a more serious voice, " _Now, Reuben- RUN!"_

Galvanized by the shout, Reuben let out a terrified squeal and took off, galloping through the crowd of monsters, who neared Jesse.

"Don't die," Axel said, his eyes glued to the screen, "I just met you...! Besides, I think Olivia and I might kill each other without you around."

A spider landed on the ground in front of Jesse, but then, to both onscreen Jesse's and the audience's surprise, it seemed to hesitate. It tilted its head as it looked at her curiously. Jesse blinked back, but then she let out an alarmed scream as a zombie's rotting hands grabbed ahold of her shoulders.

Olivia let out a moan, hands clamped firmly over her eyes, sounding as though she were about to throw up.

Jesse screamed and thrashed, trying to get the zombie's grip off of her, but it was too strong. " _Get OFF ME!_ " she yelled, trying to shove it off to the best of her ability, the scream echoing.

The screen suddenly switched to Petra, whose head snapped up at the echoing shout.

"Petra?" Axel's tense muscles relaxed all out of the blue. "Olivia, you can look now! Petra's there!"

Olivia peeked up from her hands.

" _Wasn't that...?_ " Petra broke into a run, hand tightening on her pickaxe handle as she swung it back off. She burst into the clearing to see Jesse doing her best to fend off a zombie, its rotting mouth getting far too close to her head for anybody's taste.

"Oh no," Harper said, eyes widening.

Olivia gagged and hid her face again.

Petra's gold eyes widened, and she ran even faster, but she was still way too far away.

Jesse sighed a bit, rubbing her forehead. "Great... I guess I do die, then."

" ** _NO_**!" Both Petra and Jesse yelled at the same time, Petra shoving her hand out and reaching for Jesse instinctively, and Jesse shoving her hand at the zombie with all of her strength.

A white string fired from Jesse's palm, slamming into the zombie's chest and knocking it away from her, the whole thing moving in slow-motion.

The audience's eyes widened. Jesse in particular looked _incredibly_ surprised.

Petra's left arm, the one she'd just shoved out, was starting to glow. No, really, it was beginning to glow red-hot, sparks fizzling and flying off of it, a marble-sized ball of fire expanding from the center of her palm and then launching at the zombie. It speared the zombie in the head, setting the rotting being on fire with a grunt of surprise.

Everyone stared at the screen, before slowly swiveling their heads to stare at real-Petra, who looked just as shocked at this turn of events.

Jesse scrambled backwards, back hitting the dirt wall behind her as she gaped from the zombie to the redhead, who looked just as stunned as Jesse did. " _Petra_?" she gasped, sounding shocked.

Petra stared at the black-haired girl in stunned surprise, before replying in a surprisingly even voice, " _C'mon- let's get out of the open."_

She extended her right hand, Jesse grabbing ahold of it and letting the redhead heave her to her feet, before the two of them rushed out of the clearing, Petra's left arm still glowing, though the glow was fading. The screen faded out to black.

Jesse breathed in slowly, before letting it out. She turned to look at Petra. "Petra, right? That's your name? Thank you," she said, sincerely.

"No problem, Jesse," Petra said, her hands tight on the armchair's arms. "I'll always help a friend in need."

Jesse blinked at her in surprise at this. Petra slowly managed a faint but warm smile at her.

Jesse slowly returned it.


	7. (Childish) Oaths

The screen faded back in to show Jesse and Petra walking through a cave with total silence. Petra was staring at the floor as if it were one of the most fascinating things she'd ever seen, and Jesse was fidgeting with her dungaree strap awkwardly.

Finally, the black-haired girl spoke up, clearing her throat. " _So... um... you- set the zombie on fire. From halfway across the clearing."_ Her voice sounded stilted and awkward.

Petra scuffed her shoes on the stone, still staring down. " _Y-yeah."_ Her voice was still unnaturally steady.

" _How are you staying so calm right now?"_ Dan questioned Petra. " _I know I would've freaked out long before that."_

Petra slowly shook her head after a moment of deliberation. "... I have no idea," she uttered back.

" _How'd you do it?_ " Jesse finally asked onscreen, after an extremely long pause, " _that was really awesome. I mean, it looked like a fireball, but... I don't know, you can't shoot fireballs. Normal people can't... I don't think, anyway_." Jesse smiled faintly back at Petra, making it clear that it was a poor attempt at a joke.

Petra smiled a bit herself, before her gaze went back to her boot. " _Yeah... no, they can't_." Scuff. " _I don't know how I did it either, to be honest._ " Scuff. " _I just... reacted, I guess._ " Scuff.

" _Ah_ ," Jesse responded. There was another awkward pause.

Petra finally looked up and turned to look at Jesse, mouth opening as though she wanted to say something, before pausing, her breath not even fully making it out of her mouth. Her gold eyes widened a bit. " _Wait... Jesse, what's that on your sides...?_ " she asked, slowly.

Jesse looked back down at herself, the screen panning back down to reveal the rather pointy bumps starting to stretch her dungarees out. She sighed, and the bumps curled back in, becoming less prominent again. "... _Petra, can you keep a secret?_ " she asked.

" _What do you think?_ " Petra asked with a roll of her eyes, spreading her arms out.

The audience all snickered a bit at this.

Jesse grinned at this. " _Okay, I get it. Ummm,_ " and Jesse hesitated on the 'm' sound, before continuing, more hesitantly. " _Well, I had this sort of... I guess you could call it a vision, earlier. And it was me. As... a spider hybrid."_

Petra blinked at her.

" _And at first I thought it was dumb but now-_ " The black-haired girl was starting to pick up steam, gesturing with her hands increasingly wildly and her voice rising. " _I have these bumps on my sides, and I shot string out of my hand like frickin' Spiderman or something, and I feel like my left eye is getting even darker than usual, and the bumps are getting bigger, and I can see almost as well in the dark as I do during the day- maybe better, actually-"_ She was practically shouting now, voice having reached the highest pitch it could without reaching hysteria-level, " _and now the bumps are getting BIGGER, and I actually have to make an effort to hide them and I can **move them**!"_

She abruptly cut herself off, leaving the last two words echoing in the cave.

"Do you do that often?" Stampy questioned Jesse. She let out a sigh and nodded, twisting to face him. "All too often, unfortunately."

" _Ah_." Petra cleared her throat. " _Can YOU keep a secret?_ "

Jesse crossed her heart and then put a hand over her eye automatically. " _If you can keep mine, it's fair that I keep yours,_ " she replied.

Petra blinked at the weird oath-hand-signal-thing, before nodding. " _Okay._ "

And she hesitantly pulled up her left sleeve.

Jesse leaned a little closer to see Petra's gold arm, which was starting to reflect the torchlight. "... _that looks like a Blaze Rod_ ," she finally stated quietly.

Petra cleared her throat. " _Yeah. I think it's a Blaze Rod too."_ She gave her arm another look. " _Especially since I shot fire out of that arm."_

This prompted snorts from the audience.

Her smile faded upon seeing Jesse's serious face. Jesse stared at Petra's arm for another few moments, before straightening up to look at her friend. " _Okay. Petra, this is what we're going to do."_

Petra blinked as she slowly moved the sleeve back down. " _Oooo-kayy..."_ she said, slowly.

" _We swear an oath or something to not tell ANYONE each other's secret unless it's some sort of life-threatening situation or something. Somehow. We can divulge it ourselves but we can't tell anyone about the other person's secret,_ " Jesse said, sternly.

"An oath seems kind of childish," Petra noted. 

Jesse shrugged at that. "Yeah, but it's a habit of mine from when I was kid... that's probably why I'm making one now."

Petra rubbed her head a bit, looking awkward. " _That... seems fine_ ," she said slowly.

"I think Onscreen-you agrees with real-you," Jace told Petra. She grinned back at him.

Jesse held out her hand, and Petra shook the hand that Jesse extended. Jesse released the hand then and crossed her heart before covering her eye, automatically uttering rapidly, " _Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, a secret's a secret, my word is forever, I won't break my word, I won't break it ever."_

Petra's eyebrow went up in surprise. " _Haven't heard that version before._ "

Jesse shrugged at onscreen-Petra's comment. "It's a variant of the long original poem."

" _It's a variant of the very long original poem,_ " onscreen-Jesse responded promptly.

The raven-haired girl blinked. "Hey, I just said that."

Hadrian snorted at this. He leaned over and mumbled quietly to his cohorts so that nobody else could hear, "She seems to be the leader, in a way... and yet she's practically still a young child."

Otto didn't meet Hadrian's eyes as he muttered back, very quietly, "But that doesn't matter to you, does it." A long pause. "You'll hurt her if it's necessary."

There was no response from either Mevia or Hadrian.

Petra blinked, before slowly repeating the motion Jesse had done. " _Um, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye... a secret's a secret... um..._ " She hesitated for another second, before finishing, " _my word is forever, I won't break my word, I won't break it ever."_

"I didn't think you'd be the type of person to swear oaths like that, Petra," Lukas hummed thoughtfuly.

"... neither did I. I guess I'm full of surprises," Petra joked feebly.

" _There ya go,_ " and Jesse grinned at Petra cheerfully. Petra slowly smiled back, eyes softening a little bit.

" _So_ ," Jesse said after a moment, arching her own eyebrow and crossing her arms curiously with a tilt of her head, " _what were **you** doing out in the woods, anyway?"_

" _Ah_ ," and a mischievous grin twitched over Petra's lips.

Real-Petra grinned a bit herself, leaning forward with anticipation.

" _Since we're on the topic of secrets right now, have you ever seen..."_ She reached into her seemingly-endless pocket and pulled out a blackened skull, that secretive grin growing to beauty-pageant proportions. " _A Wither Skull?_ "


	8. Bridge Jump

" _Nice!_ " Jesse exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Oh, wow," and Lukas sat up a bit straighter, blue eyes flashing with interest, "you went to the Nether?"

Ivor's eyes were fixated on the screen. He glanced at everyone else quickly.

" _Right?_ " Petra's grin could've been compared to the Chesire Cat's. " _There's this guy I'm meeting up with at Endercon. He's going to trade me a diamond for it."_ She put the skull back into her back pocket.

Jesse's lips twisted together a bit dubiously at this, slowly crossing her arms. " _What's he gonna do with a Wither Skull, anyway? Stick it on his mantelpiece and brag to everyone about it?_ "

"Ooh, if we had a mantel, we could totally do that," Axel said, perking up. "That'd be a cool design thing."

Maya let out a noncommittal hum at this suggestion. "Mmm."

Jace raised his eyebrow at Maya. He leaned over to Olivia. "Did Maya just kind of _agree_ with us? Or was that just my imagination?" he whispered.

"If it was just your imagination, then it would be mine, too."

" _I dunno, Petra,_ " Jesse was saying onscreen, " _it sounds a little shadoy..."_

" _A lot of my deals are shady,_ " Petra dismissed this.

Real-Petra snorted. "That's true enough."

" _Don't worry, I'm pretty sure everything will be fine._ "

"... _wow._ " This soft utterance came out in a breathless, rather admiring way.

Petra turned to look at Jesse and came to a stop, gold eyes narrowed at her in confusion. " _Wow... what?_ "

Jesse put up her hands in mild surrender, eyes widening as she hastened to explain. " _I-it's just- in_ one day _, you went to the Nether, and killed a_ Wither Skeleton _\- I mean, I did build a pretty cool statue, but... it's pretty sweet being you, huh?_ "

Petra hesitated for a moment, before saying, tentatively, " _You know... you could come WITH me, if you want..._ "

"Awesome, dude!" Axel cheered, making Jesse start a bit and twist to look at him, "say yes, say yes!"

" _You want me... to come with YOU_ ," Jesse said, pointing at herself and then at Petra in utter astonishment.

Petra's lips twitched into a smile. " _Consider it my charitable act for the day_ ," she joked.

" _I'll consider it whatever you want me to consider it,"_ Jesse gushed a bit, eyes sparkling, " _so long as I get to come._ "

The two of them came to a stop near a crafting table. Jesse blinked a bit at this before looking over at Petra. " _You just... keep a crafting table down here?_ "

"I wish we could do that," Milo muttered quietly. Isa overheard, though, and narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "And what in the world is THAT supposed to insinuate?"

Petra shrugged. " _Comes in handy. Since that wooden sword of yours got busted..._ " The redhead trailed off.

Jesse looked at the crafting table, then back at the redhead. " _I can make my own?_ "

Petra smiled at Jesse again. " _Yep- it's always better to make it yourself. Just get everything you need from that chest over there,_ " and she pointed at said chest.

"Wow, thanks, Petra," Jesse said again, turning to look at Petra. "I mean, you saved my life, and now you're letting me make a sword..." She trailed off, before smiling slightly. "... thank you."

"Like I said, I'll always help out a friend in need," Petra said, grinning back at her.

" _Okay- thanks._ " Jesse trotted over to the chest and open it. Rummaging through it for a few seconds, she lifted the stones and the sticks out of the chest, juggling it a bit to keep herself from dropping it on the floor. " _Y'know, four extra arms would be really useful in this situation,_ " she joked. Petra snickered a bit at that.

Finally, she managed to get everything in place on the table, and the ingredients shivered together before compacting and forming a stone sword, hovering a little above the table.

"You know, I always wondered how that worked," Jesse mused, tapping her lip. There were murmurs of agreement from all of the younger people in the room.

"There's a lot of scientific-y mumbo jumbo about how all that works, but I don't know it so I don't care," Magnus responded lazily. Ellegaard opened her mouth, probably to explain _exactly_ how that worked, but right then Jesse was lifting her sword off the table and giving it a good look as Petra grinned at her. " _See? Isn't it better when you make it yourself?_ "

Jesse nodded as she sheathed her new sword, grinning back at Petra.

The screen cut to them trotting out of the cave. " _Hey, look_ ," Petra pointed, " _Endercon's all lit up._ "

Jesse turned to look, her eyes lighting up as the screen cut to Endercon, fireworks going off above the convention.

"Awesome! We won!" Jace exclaimed, high-fiving Axel and Olivia and Jesse in excitement. Jesse grinned and fondled Reuben's ears, her own eyes sparkling with excitement herself. Aiden and the other Ocelots scowled a bit at this.

" _No way- we won!"_ Jesse jumped up and down in place and pumped her fists, making Petra grin at her in amusement. " _The Enderman was the right way to go._ "

" _Good for you, Jesse,_ " Petra responded, sounding encouraging.

Jesse put her hands on her hips. " _It's about time we beat Lukas and his gang of jerks,_ " she said, determinedly. " _I was sick and tired of losing every diddly-darn competition we entered to them._ "

"What? I don't like swearing," Jesse said, when everyone turned to stare at her. She rubbed her head awkwardly as she glanced over at Lukas. "Um, sorry about calling you a jerk."

"It's fine..."

Petra hesitated, before tentatively saying, " _You know, Lukas can be kinda arrogant, but he's come through for me in some tough situations. I'm just saying, you may want to get to know him... just in case._ "

Jesse's expression faded to a more thoughtful one. " _I got that feeling..._ " she crossed her arms a bit. " _I just got this feeling that... I dunno..._ " She raised her shoulders and then let them slump in a little shrug. " _I trust him._ "

Lukas blinked. "Oh... thanks, Jesse."

The black-haired girl shot him a thumbs-up and a grin, which he returned a moment later. (The grin, not the thumbs up.)

Petra raised her eyebrow as the two of them started walking again. " _Think it has something to do with us being hybrids?_ " she wondered.

Jesse let out a little laugh at that. " _Lukas? A hybrid? Nahh, he's the most normal person I know... of. I don't know him that well._ "

Jesse smothered a sound that could've been described as a snort at this. She wasn't the only one to do so.

" _There's no way-_ " She was cut off as she reached the middle of the bridge by a loud hiss. Both female's heads snapped forward to see a crowd of creepers approaching them.

Olivia let out a groan and covered her eyes. "Oh, no, not _again...!_ "

" _Creepers_!" Jesse hissed as she backed up. Petra turned around to face the other way and let out a loud groan. " _Crap._ "

Jesse turned to see zombies and more creepers emerging from the cave they'd come from, cutting off any escape routes.

" _Uhh, well, there's only one way off this bridge_..." Petra said, unsteadily. " _Whatever we do, we do it together..._ "

Jesse swallowed, before pulling out her new stone sword, unevenly-colored green eyes hardening. " _The only way off this bridge, is through them!_ " she told the redhead, who smiled slightly and pulled out her own sword, both of them turning to face their respective crowds.

Jesse smacked a creeper away several times before it puffed into smoke, but even as the smoke rose into the air another creeper seemed to materialize in its place. " _There's too many!_ " Petra shouted out.

Olivia let out a little gasp and buried her head in her hands. "Oh Notch no."

" _I don't wanna DIE!_ " Jesse screamed as the creepers got too close and exploded, sending both girls flying off the bridge. Jesse looked down to see the water rushing forward to meet them, before looking up to see Petra. Petra's gold eyes were faintly panicked.

" _Can you swim?_ " Jesse called out to Petra over the rushing wind.

The redhead swallowed, looking down again. " _Not... not well._ " Her voice seemed to have gone an octave higher.

" _Neither can I_ ," Jesse admitted in turn, looking back down again.

"If Petra is half-Blaze," Cassie murmured thoughtfully, "could she die if she fell in water?"

Jace looked extremely uncomfortable at the thought of that. "I don't think I want to know." Petra's facial expression said much the same thing.

" _Can't Blazes fly?"_ Jesse shouted to Petra after a moment of thought.

"It's more like hovering, honestly, but- yes, Blazes can technically fly," Soren murmured thoughtfully.

" _What?! Jesse, you do realize I don't have wings, right?!_ " Petra screamed back, her voice definitely an octave higher and _definitely_ panicked.

" _Blazes don't either! Just... I dunno how Blazes fly, just try to figure it out?!_ " Jesse asked desperately, looking around in a hot panic herself.

Petra squeezed her eyes tight, fists clenching. It was evident to see that she was trying to rack her brain the best she could. Slowly, sparks started flying off of Petra, piecing together to form golden rods around her. They were only halfway formed, but they were getting pretty darn close to the water-

Jesse shot her hand out again, and a long string of silk fired from the center of her palm, catching onto a ledge somewhere on the cliff. Jesse's free-fall turned more into a long swing, slowing the downwards momentum. Jesse's eyes widened in surprise.

She splashed into the water, sending an impressive wave of water flying, before coming back to the surface, the water only coming up to about the bottom of her ribs now. Not that it really mattered; seeing as she was soaking wet. She reached out and tore off the spider silk that seemed to be coming from her hand.

Petra hit the water at an extremely acute angle, tripping into the water with a yelp and making the Blaze Rods evaporate into clouds of steam.

The audience winced at this.

Her torso popped above the water as well, although the water reached more to her waist, her left arm also steaming.

"I seriously envy tall people," Jesse mumbled, leaning her cheek on her hand as she watched the screen.

The two girls were panting heavily, staring at each other, steam rising from around Petra and a long floating trail of silk behind Jesse, water pouring from their hair and their clothes that were above the water.

"... _so,_ " Petra finally said, still panting, " _that happened._ "

The two girls kept staring at each other for a moment, before a funny sound came out of Jesse, and the two girls suddenly couldn't stop laughing, Petra slapping her hand over her eyes and Jesse covering her mouth as she giggled.

"I think they might be in a bit of shock from what just happened," Jace murmured musingly. "I mean, they both found out they were hybrids, got blown off a bridge, and used their 'powers' to keep from becoming a grease spot in the river."

"I know I would be!" Stampy contributed.

The two girls headed for shore, still laughing, as the screen faded back to black.

"This is kind of cool," Petra mumbled, "but I don't really see why we need to be showed this. I mean, besides the whole hybrid thing, it seems like any other day. Except, well, Jesse's a girl-"

"Technically I should be called Jace, now-"

"And she's tagging along. And none of the other people here have showed up yet."

Jesse hummed thoughtfully. "Well, we will find out. Although I still have to wonder why anyone would want a Wither Skull in the first place."

"Maybe it's like Jesse suggested and the guy's putting it on his mantel," Axel suggested.

This prompted snorts from the audience.


	9. Endercon Trade

The black faded away to show Jesse and Petra walking into Endercon, Jesse looking around with a worried expression on her face. " _ Just tell me if you spot Reuben anywhere, _ " she said hopefully.

Jace let out a groan. "Ohhh, I actually managed to forget for a couple of minutes..." Reuben, sensing Jace's discomfort, gave his hand a comforting nudge. The mocha-haired boy smiled down worriedly at the pink pig.

Petra sounded concerned as she gave a quick, cursory glance around herself. " _ He's gotta be around here somewhere, _ " as Jesse's differently colored eyes roved over the crowds.

" _ So _ ," and Jesse's attention focused back onto the redhead, whose tone was more business-like now, " _ when we're making the deal, I need you to... let me do the talking, okay? _ " And she gave Jesse a smile.

Jesse didn't immediately respond- it was clear to see her attention was still focused on Reuben. Petra mistook the silence for something else and continued, " _ I just don't anything to mess this up." _

" _ Sure _ ," and Jesse nodded with a small smile at the redhead, finally back at attention, " _ I'll keep quiet." _

_ "And, if you wanna be REALLY useful, try to look intimidating, _ " Petra suggested to the black-haired girl.

Jesse's face went deadpan and serious. " _ Petra, I think you should know by now that I don't really do intimidating _ ," she said simply. This comment made Petra twist around and slap her hand over her mouth to smother her snort.

She wasn't the only one- the rest of the audience were either trying to smother grins or snickering audibly at this. Jesse looked very pleased at everyone's amusement at this.

" _ By the way, _ " Petra noted, after a few seconds, " _ your left eye seems a bit darker...?" _ She gestured a bit at her own left eye to emphasize the point. " _ I didn't really notice earlier since it was dark, but... well, now... _ "

Jesse made a humming sound. " _ Oh- got it _ ," and she unclipped her gold barrette, letting it fall out of its usual style and letting her hair fall in glossy black curtains over her face, before pinning back the  _ right _ side of her hair rather than the left side, that one wave of hair remaining over her left eye.

Petra raised her eyebrow at Jesse, who blinked innocently up at the taller female. " _ You look surprisingly good with your hair like that, _ " she commented at length.

Real-Petra looked from the screen to Real-Jesse. "... yeah, actually, you do," she mumbled thoughtfully.

"It really does!" Stacy nodded in agreement.

Jesse blinked at everyone in surprise, everyone in the room giving a grudging nod or an affirmative humming sound. Even the Ocelots seemed to be nodding. "Er... thank you?"

Onscreen Jesse blinked again. " _ Umm, thanks, _ " she said, sounding a little startled by the sudden compliment.

" _ Jesse! _ " Jesse turned to see Axel and Olivia race up to meet her, both looking visibly relieved.

Harper squinted at the screen a bit and leaned forward, which didn't go unnoticed by Ivor. "What are you doing?" he asked quietly, so as to avoid bothering everyone else.

"Does... Olivia's eye seem... brighter to you?" the white-haired woman murmured thoughtfully.

His gaze switched back to the screen, eyes narrowing before widening a bit in surprise. "Now that you mention it..." he mumbled back.

Olivia stopped in her tracks, eyes widening. It was evident that her right eye was almost a shade of purple now, definitely a bit lighter than before. " _ And... _ Petra? _ " _ she asked, sounding shocked by this.

Jesse looked over at Petra, who simply shrugged in return. She looked back over at Axel and Olivia, rubbing the back of her head. " _ Yeah, I- ran into her, while I was looking for Reuben. _ "

Axel's face sobered up, growing more solemn. " _ Couldn't find him, huh? _ "

" _ He just has to be here somewhere, I just know it! _ " Olivia said, although her voice faltered a bit. She seemed to be trying to convince her friend of this fact.

Jace drooped a bit.

Jesse noticed and patted him on the shoulder, giving the brown-haired male an encouraging smile. "Hey, I'm sure Reuben's okay. Right, buddy?" she looked at the pink pig in her lip, who let out a cheerful squeal. This made Jace smile weakly back at both of them.

" _ I saw him _ ," Jesse said with a nod, " _ but before I knew what was happening, we were under attack by a zombie horde. I told him to run... it was for his own good. _ " Her voice just sounded like she was trying to convince herself, let alone anyone else in the room.

" _ But hey, _ " Olivia said, in an overly bright voice, " _ we won! _ "

They all turned to look at the Enderman, although they avoided fully looking at it. Well, except for Olivia, who was scrutinizing it more carefully.

Axel's face collapsed into a frown. " _ Abandoning friends in their time of need paid off once again. _ "

Axel winced at that.

Olivia's own face twisted into a frown. " _ I still wish I'd gotten that part in the back to look better... _ " she mumbled thoughtfully.

Jesse stepped in front of them, her arms quashing her sides as she clasped her hands behind her back, grinning at them. " _ Guys, I'm PROUD of you _ ," she said, in a faintly cheery voice that sounded rather fake.

"She's really preoccupied with Reuben, huh..." Gill mumbled, scratching his cheek with a faintly awkward look.

Axel smiled at the black-haired girl a bit, eyes crinkling up. " _ Aww, shucks _ ," he joked to her.

Olivia smiled at Jesse herself. " _ Don't make me blush..." _ And then her expression went more deadpan. " _ Seriously. _ Don't. _ " _

Jesse chuckled at this, making Real-Olivia grin at the black-haired girl, who quickly returned the grin.

Onscreen, the two girls started to giggle a bit, Jesse covering her mouth and Olivia's lips twitching back into a grin. Axel looked over at Petra, making Jesse stop giggling to listen, although her lips were still turned up at the ends in amusement. " _ So, Petra... what were you doing in the woods? _ "

Jesse and Petra immediately shared a glance, Jesse's smile fading a bit. " _ Nothing... just... drawn by the sound of Jesse's high-pitched screams," _ Petra said, vaguely.

"Hey, they weren't  _ that _ high-pitched..." Jesse protested jokingly. Aiden snorted faintly, although for once he didn't seem like he was about to diss her. "I beg to differ," he responded, sounding faintly amused.

Jesse nodded at this and looked back to her friends. " _ I'd be a zombie if it weren't for help, _ " she said, gratefully.

There was momentary pause as Axel and Olivia absorbed this fact, before the redhead said to the raven-haired girl, lightly, " _ So, Jesse, it's time to go do that... thing, I was telling you about." _

Jesse blinked at her in confusion for a moment. " _ Huh-? Oh, right." _ She turned back to her friends. " _ See you guys inside later? _ "

" _ I heard someone was selling cake by the map booth! _ " Axel responded cheerfully, grinning at Jesse. Olivia rolled her eyes with her own little smile. " _ Sure. See you later, _ " she said, although she seemed a little hurt by this.

Jesse mouthed with a small smile to Olivia, " _ Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. _ "

Olivia gave her a thumbs-up and a nod, before the two of them walked into Endercon side-by-side.

Stampy coughed something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like " _ Ishipit _ ". Thankfully, neither Axel nor Olivia heard it.

Petra watched them go for a moment, before turning back to Jesse. " _ Hurry- we're supposed to meet in that alley over there, _ " she said in a soft, urgent voice, pointing at said alley.

They strolled in, Jesse looking around halfheartedly- she was obviously still hung up on Reuben's disappearance. " _ It's not all that dark, _ " she commented absentmindedly.

Petra twisted to look at her. " _ Really? You must have eyes like a bat, then, it's dim in here, _ " she commented back.

"If I had eyes like a bat, then I would technically be blind," Jesse pointed out. Lukas let out an unexpected snort at this, everyone looking at him as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, that's- that's a pretty good point," he chuckled.

"Thank you, thank you," Jesse said, standing up and sweeping a dramatic bow, and making most of the audience laugh a bit at her. Even Ivor cracked a smile.

Onscreen, Petra's eyes narrowed a bit. In the alley, there was only a single chest, a light, and nothing else. " _ That's weird... he said the dark, creepy alley close to the entrance." _

This prompted more snorts from the audience.

" _ Are you sure this is the dark, creepy alley he meant? _ " Jesse asked drily. Petra frowned, crossing her arms and squinting. " _ I...  _ was. _ Okay, new plan- you stay here in case this IS the spot he meant, and I'll go look around for him." _

"Oh no, I've seen that situation in too many horror movies- if you split up Jesse's gonna die!" Dan exclaimed, eyes widening from under his purple hair (wait, did it- did it change color again?).

"But this isn't a horror movie," Jesse pointed out to him.

"Oh yeah."

" _ Sure, _ " Jesse agreed onscreen with a smile, " _ I'll hold down the fort. _ "

" _ Thanks, Jesse- if he shows up while I'm gone, then just stall for me. _ " And Petra walked back off.

Jesse looked around at the alley for a moment, before approaching the chest. The dim light shone down on the chest, and her left wave of hair blocked her left eye. She squinted at the chest for a moment, before letting out an annoyed sigh, pulling the hair aside again-

" **_Ahem._ ** "

Jesse rapidly twisted to her left with a soft gasp, the bumps on her sides seeming to curl in again, eyes wide.

The shadow at the mouth of the alley started back for a moment, but the audience could see why, and it had made several people start back themselves. Onscreen Jesse hadn't realized it, but her left eye was a shade of blood red, cutting through the dim light like a sword through butter, dramatic shadows thrown over her face from the dim lighting.

She turned around, letting her hair drop back in front of her eye as she backed away a step. The shadow recovered and stepped forward, revealing none other than IVOR. " _ And just who might  _ you _ be? _ " he asked, scowling.


	10. Shippy Moments and Flashbacks

"Ivor?" Ellegaard hummed, eyes narrowing, "what do you want with a Wither Skull?"

"Ohhh, that's where I recognized you from," Petra said, snapping her fingers as she looked over at the scowling Ivor, "you're my buyer."

" _ I'm- my name is Jesse, _ " Jesse responded, sounding  _ supremely _ startled.

Ivor's eyes narrowed at her. " _ I'm supposed to meet up with Petra, not whatever you're supposed to be!" _ Ivor snapped at her.

"A... human being?" Jesse said, tentatively.

Lukas made a sound that sounded somewhere beneath a sneeze, a cough, and a laugh. He attempted to smother it and in the end came close to choking. Aiden thumped him on the back, smothering his own grin at the joking response.

" _ Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just walk out right now! _ " Ivor continued.

Jesse took a deep breath, letting it out shakily. " _ I'm with- Petra, _ " she responded, slightly awkwardly.

" _ My deal's with her, not her partner! _ " Ivor practically snarled at Jesse, making her wince and step back once, before catching himself and letting out an annoyed huff. " _ But as long as we're here... do you have the skull? _ "

" _ P-Petra has it, and she'll be back any second now," _ Jesse said hastily, putting up her hands in a surrendering sort of motion.

Ivor glared at Jesse for another moment, before crossing his arms, his expression relaxing. " _ Well, as long as she's coming... I suppose it won't kill me to wait a minute longer _ ," he said, more calmly than before.

Jesse let out a long breath that she must've been holding the whole time, an awkward silence settling over the alley.

Real-Jesse let out a shaky breath, clasping her hands at her throat as she tried to calm down. Jace noticed. "You okay there, Jesse?" he asked her.

The girl turned to smile weakly at the mocha-haired boy. "Yeah... I just don't really handle confrontations well most of the time... whew," and she absentmindedly pressed her fingers to the side of her neck, testing her pulse.

Petra's voice rang out in the alley clearly. " _ Ivor! _ " she called, cutting through the awkward silence.

Ivor's faint scowl cleared. " _ Ah, here she is. _ "

" _ Sorry for being late _ ," Petra said, smiling slightly, " _ but... good things are waiting for. _ "

"Technically HE was late," Reginald pointed out, Real-Petra conceding the point with a nod.

Ivor sneered at Jesse, who maintained a deadpan look. " _ You didn't mention you had a partner... and I don't like surprises." _

Magnus snorted derisively. "Don't we all know!"

_ "Perhaps we should just call the whole thing off! _ " Ivor finished, looking back at Petra.

" _ Where in the world are you going to find someone else who's willing to get you a Wither Skull on such short notice?" _ Jesse suddenly pointed out, her own deadpan look becoming more curious. Ivor sent her a scowl, which seemed to make her realize she'd just called his bluff. She quickly backpedaled, putting her hands up in surrender quickly. " _ Buuut, I'm cool if he's cool _ ," she tacked on.

Petra glanced at her, mouthed 'thank you' so quickly the audience almost didn't realize she'd even done so, and turned back to Ivor. " _ See? You're both cool. _ "

" _ Proceed, then _ ," Ivor said in a silky tone. Jesse's brow furrowed onscreen- apparently those two words struck her as being menacing, and particularly ominous. Real-Jesse had to agree.

Petra reached into her pocket and held out the Wither Skull, Ivor taking it and scrutinizing it. His dark blue eyes seemed to clear up into a more pleased look. Petra crossed her arms and arched her brow at Ivor. " _ I'll take that diamond now." _

Ivor glanced up from the skull. " _ Take it. You've earned it _ ," he responded, and the two girls looked at the chest from before. They slowly walked over, the view switching so they were looking up at the two from inside the chest. Jesse's eyes widened, and Petra's expression turned to anger. " _ Um- that's not a diamond! _ " Jesse blurted.

" _ No- it's  _ lapis!" Petra exclaimed as she pulled out not a diamond, but in fact- lapis.

Olivia, Axel, Petra, Jace, and Lukas gaped at the screen. Everyone else just looked a bit surprised or were looking at Ivor with faintly disgruntled expressions. Harper mainly looked startled.

"This guy," Lukas spoke slowly after a long moment, sounding utterly astonished, eyes widening, "cut out on a deal with  _ Petra?" _ He turned to stare at Petra, who looked as though she might pull a Jace and start chucking books at Ivor's head. "With  _ PETRA? _ "

Petra turned to glare at Ivor's armchair. "What the hell, man?!" she asked, eyes blazing with fury.

Jesse and Jace rapidly exchanged a look.

"What?" Ivor shrugged, looking extremely uncomfortable but sounding as if he'd done- as if he  _ wouldn't do- _ anything wrong. "Look, I  _ needed _ that skull, and I didn't have a diamond, s-so... I thought you'd at least get lapis instead of nothing?"

Petra made to get out of her chair. " _ Lapis-?! _ " she began in a hot fury, before suddenly something landed in her lap and she was forced back down. She blinked wide-eyed at the mocha-haired male currently literally sitting on her lap, his cheeks faintly pink at this position. "J-Jace-?"

"If I let you up, you're pretty much going to murder him, so until you calm down, I'm not moving," Jace responded stoutly, although his cheeks were currently beginning to flame red with embarrassment.

Not that he was the only one; Petra's cheeks were red too.

She stared at him before huffing and crossing her arms. "Okay, fine, but I'm kicking his butt later," she muttered, relaxing a bit and sending a glare in Ivor's direction.

"Fair enough," and Jace hopped back off and resumed his seat on the carpet, still blushing heavily.

Onscreen, Jesse glanced at Petra, whose eyes were literally filled with fire. " _ Um, Petra, _ " and she pointed at the smoking glove on Petra's arm. " _ I'm pretty sure spontaneous combustion is not how you want to get revenge..." _

There were a few chuckles at this.

Petra looked back down, and patted the smoking part out again, relaxing slightly. The fire was still in her eyes, and her jaw was clenched tightly and her fists were in balls, nearly breaking the lapis that was still in her hand. " _ Of all the rotten, dirty- _ " she snarled softly.

Jesse got up. " _ We have to go after him!" _ she said determinedly, and Petra nodded, shoving the lapis in her pocket. The two girls then raced out of the alley, neck and neck with one another.

" _ Either I'm getting that diamond, or I'm getting my skull back! _ " Petra snapped, eyes still filled with flames.

" _ Either that, or we'll beat the tar out of him _ ," Jesse added, her own eyes hardening.

Everyone turned to stare at Jesse. She shrugged as if she'd said nothing out of the ordinary. "Mess with my friends and I will  _ break _ you," she said, simply.

" _ EXACTLY! _ " Petra snarled, before the two of them burst back onto the main street, looking around. " _ Where did he go?! _ "

Jesse's eyebrows contracted angrily, but her voice was hollow when she spoke again. " _ We lost him...! _ "

" _ Then we'll just have to find him again! _ " Petra said sharply, before pointing at one of the adjoining streets. " _ I'll head this way, you go that way! _ "

" _ Fine by me! _ " Jesse agreed, and the two of them broke apart to run to their respective crowds. Upon reaching hers, Jesse slowed down, although she was still trotting along at a decent clip. Judging from the buzz of the crowd, she'd just missed Gabriel.

" _ Well, I think I'd usually be more disappointed, but I should probably find Ivor... and Reuben." _ She actually stopped in her tracks, eyes widening, before they softened and she drooped. " _ Aw,  _ man- _ I actually forgot about Reuben for a minute..." _ she mumbled, looking dejected. Reuben looked up at her and nudged her, making the black-haired girl grin as she fondled his ears.

" _ Hey. _ "

Jesse started back a step and looked up, Lukas's blue (and seemingly slightly green) eyes meeting hers. " _ Oh- h-hey, Lukas, _ " she said, sounding startled.

" _ 'Sup with you? _ " Lukas asked.

" _ N-nothing. 'Sup with you?" _

" _ Nothing. 'Sup with  _ you? _ " _

Jesse relaxed a bit, the ghost of a smile forming on her face. " _ I just said... nothing. _ "

"You both are such dorks," Petra announced. Both Jesse and Lukas twisted to glare at her playfully. "Hey!" they chorused indignantly.

Lukas blushed a bit at that, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish look. " _ Oh. Oh yeah. You did. So, um... congrats on the win. _ " And he smiled at her nervously, his hair twitching a bit. " _ I mean, I still think our beacon was  _ amazing _ , but... good job. I mean, I thought the whole monster thing was plenty cool, but... fireworks, too?" _

"You're totally flirting," Gill said, deadpan. Jesse stared ahead at the screen, the only hint of her hearing the red-hot blush that was starting to flood over her face.

"No, I was complimenting her build. There's a difference," Lukas said calmly, his own blush beginning to come over his face.

"Not much of one."

Lukas stared at Gill for a moment with a deadpan expression, before reaching over Aiden to shove him off the couch.

Jesse blinked, looking taken aback at this. " _ Thanks... your- rainbow beacon wasn't too shabby," _ and she grinned at him kindly.

" _ You don't have to do that- okay? _ " Lukas smiled at her again. " _ You guys won, fair and square." _

Jesse's smile faded. " _ Your friend hurt my pig _ ," she said, quietly, her expression much more solemn.

Real-Lukas winced a bit at this.

Lukas's face went deadpan at this. " _ Yeah. I know. But I swear, I had nothing to do with that." _

Jesse dismissively waved at that with a sigh. " _ No, no, I believe you... Aiden's just... kind of a jerk." _ Jesse stared at the ground, crossing her arms, voice going even quieter than before. " _ He's still missing, you know." _

Lukas's face went a bit more sympathetic. " _ Is that why you were looking all sad a minute ago?" _ he asked.

Jesse let her eyes close. "...  _ yeah... _ "

Jace drooped a bit, Jesse patting him sympathetically on the back while Reuben snuffled.

" _ I'm sorry about that." _

" _ It's- it's not your fault. _ " Jesse hesitated, before looking back up. " _ Um, did you see this kinda creepy-looking guy... with a beard and a weird sort of belt? About yea tall? _ " She gestured with her hands to indicate the height.

Lukas thought for a minute. " _ Umm, I don't think so _ ," he said finally, " _ why?" _

Jesse rubbed the back of her head. " _ He... kinda scammed Petra out of a diamond a bit earlier," _ she replied.

Lukas's eyes went as round as marbles. "Whoa-  _ everyone knows you don't mess with Petra. Not if you know what's good for you." _

Petra turned to glower at Ivor. " **Exactly** ," she snarled.

" _ I know, right?" _ Jesse asked, with a faint chuckle. Lukas chuckled a bit in return, before both of their eyes widened and they grabbed at their heads. " _ Ahh! _ " Jesse exclaimed, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Wait, what's going on now?" Em asked, eyes narrowing.

The screen zoomed in on Jesse, before revealing the little fluffy-haired girl with six arms from the first 'flashback' sitting on the floor and looking at someone for a few moments.

" _ What are you doing?" _ she asked.

Everyone's eyes widened as the little blonde-haired boy with blue-green eyes and ocelot ears came into view from where he lay on his stomach, his eyes glazed over with boredom. " _ Being bored _ ," he said hollowly. There were claw marks on the floor in front of him, and his ears and tail twitched every couple of moments.

The spider hybrid hesitated, before getting up and trotting over to the ocelot hybrid and sitting cross-legged, before starting to stroke his head, being careful not to rub the hair the wrong way.

For a moment, he seemed not to notice, except for blue green eyes moving to look at the spider hybrid. " _ What are you doing? _ " he asked at length, his tail flicking slightly. Although it was hard to tell if he was irritated or happy about it.

She leaned over to look at him. " _ I'm petting you. Cats like to be petted, right?" _ she asked.

He opened his mouth to respond, before a funny look came into his eyes and he relaxed. His irises began to get bigger, and his pupils dilated. " _ That- _ " he was cut off by a round of purring. " _ That feels... really good..." _

The girl kept petting him, and slowly he was  _ full-out purring _ , his irises the size of golf balls. " _ Ooh... this feels nice... _ " he literally purred.

The girl grinned cheekily from where she was still petting him. " _ Hehe, who says experimenting with cats is a bad idea? _ " the spider hybrid joked, making the both of them chuckle a little bit at this.

The screen zoomed back out to see Jesse's eyes opening again as she straightened back up, staring at Lukas in surprise. The blonde Ocelot was straightening up, staring at Jesse as well, the two of them staring at one another in surprise.

Finally, Lukas looked away, rubbing his head. " _ Um... so... I'll keep an eye out." _

" _ Thanks, Lukas _ ," and Jesse gave him an awkward smile.

There was another pause, before Lukas tilted his head at her. " _ Um, so... we're cool?" _ he asked, sounding faintly nervous.

Jesse nodded. " _ We're cool _ ," she agreed.

" _ Cool, cool," _ Lukas responded.

Jesse hesitated for a couple of seconds. " _ Cool beans, _ " she replied finally.

" _ Cool-o-rama _ ," Lukas answered, cracking the slightest smile.

"Dorks. You two are such  _ dorks, _ " Petra announced again.

Jesse laughed at that, relieving some of the tension. " _ Ha! See ya, Lukas," _ and she strolled off, almost missing the slightly late, echoed, " _ Yeah, see ya. _ " She turned back to wave for a second, to see his expression had changed to a rather confused look.

"Flirting."

"Don't make me shove you off the couch a second time," Lukas warned Gill, his cheeks tinted pink as he glared at the bearded male.

As she turned back around, she spotted Axel watching some sort of chicken torture machine (which she decided to not even comment on...) and clearly enjoying himself. She rolled her eyes.

He spotted her after a moment and mouthed ' _ I'll find the weird guy in a minute or two.' _

"Oh, Petra must've already gone through there..." Gabriel mused, touching his lip thoughtfully.

Jesse rolled her eyes at him with a grin. " _ Sure," _ she mouthed back. His own grin grew bigger, making Jesse chuckle to herself before spotting someone with brown robes and long black hair walking through the crowd.

"Oh, hey, you found him!" Axel exclaimed, trying to avoid Petra's playful glare for abandoning the little mission.

Jesse crossed her arms, squinting after the figure for some reason, before starting after the robed figure again.

"I wonder what the hesitation was for," Petra mused.


	11. Confrontations (sort of)

Jesse had reached the center of the crowd when suddenly Aiden popped out from behind someone, making Jesse start back and her gold barrette slip out of place, making her hair fall into place over her eyes. " _Well, if it isn't Team Trashbag!_ "

Most of the audience let out a groan.

" _How's your stupid pig?_ " Jesse stilled, before reaching up. " _I hear intense heat causes brain-_ " Aiden's celery-green eyes widened as he abruptly cut himself off, going perfectly still.

The screen switched back to Jesse abruptly, making several people jump in shock.

Jesse was glowering at Aiden, but she'd moved the hair away from her _left_ eye, and it was glowing blood-red, casting dramatic, red-tinted shadows over her face. Both of those things combined made Aiden extremely lucky that looks couldn't kill. " _I don't know_ how-" She stepped forward, making Aiden step back, " _I don't know_ when-" Another step. " _But someday, far into the future, when you're least expecting it,"_ and the screen changed to show Jesse getting right up in his face, still glaring. " _We_ will _get our revenge."_

"Holy crap!" Axel exclaimed. Even Petra looked surprised at this.

"That- that was _dark_ ," Stacy said, vocalizing the thoughts of everyone in the room. Lukas slowly shook his head and gave Jesse a strange look. "Remind me never to mess with you. Either of you. Like, _ever._ "

"We will, don't worry," Jace said, glued to the screen.

" _Wh-whoa, I was just joking! Geez,_ " Aiden whimpered slightly, cringing away from the one-eyed glare Jesse was sending him.

Jesse readjusted her hair, leaning back, still glowering at Aiden. Her lips were pressed together with rage, her fists balled up and _trembling_. " _Yeah?"_ she asked, almost sweetly, " _well I wasn't."_ With that, she shoved him out of the way and continued on, obviously fuming.

"It was kind of Aiden's fault," Jace mused, "I'm pretty sure Jesse wouldn't have gone all scary-creepy-red-eye on him if he hadn't insulted Reuben." And he reached over to rub Reuben's head.

"Like I said earlier- mess with my friends, and I will _break_ you," Jesse responded simply.

Jesse paused at the sight of Ivor, squinting at them for a minute.

"What's the hold up?" Petra wondered, watching Jesse watch Ivor curiously onscreen. Jesse shrugged at the redhead.

"No idea."

Finally, onscreen-Jesse stepped forward and tapped them on the shoulder. " _Um... excuse me?_ " she asked, tentatively.

They turned around to reveal that it was actually a woman who looked _remarkably_ like Ivor from the back. " _Yes?"_

Magnus let out a loud bark of laughter, making everyone glance at him. " _Ha!_ Ivor resembles a woman!"

Ivor glared at Magnus over the giggling fits everyone was having now at this comment. "Or maybe the _woman_ resembles _Ivor_ ," he said, through gritted teeth as he stared pointedly at the Rogue.

"Mmm, nahhh."

Jesse rubbed the back of her head. " _Ah, sorry- you just looked like someone I was looking for,_ " she said sheepishly, sounding immensely relieved that she hadn't just up and confronted her.

" _Oh, okay._ " And the woman turned away again.

Jesse let out a disappointed sigh, before a loud, terrified squeal rang out through the area. Her head immediately snapped around in the direction of the squeal. "Reuben?" she called out, hopefully.

She started walking forwards, coming near a butcher stand. " _Get your pork chops here! Fresh off the bone!_ "

"Who sells pork chops at a convention?" Sparklez asked, turning to look at Jace. The boy shook his head tiredly.

"People sell everything at EnderCon, from voodoo dolls to board games. It's just best to not question it," he answered.

Jesse was about to pass the butcher's stall, when the butcher lifted a pig out and set him on the counter. This pig happened to be Reuben.

"Reuben!" Jace nearly shrieked, jumping so that his knees collided with the coffee table.

Most of the occupants of the room winced at him sympathetically. Jesse leaned forward with wide eyes at Real-Reuben's frantic squeal, Benedict letting out a sort of worried clucking sound from where she was perched in Isa's lap.

Onscreen-Jesse looked as though she might _faint_ as the butcher pulled out an axe. " _Nothing quite sticks to your ribs like a juicy pork chop!_ " he called out.

" _REUBEN!_ " Jesse screamed as she raced towards the booth, eyes wide with utter horror.

"It's a really good thing Jesse got there in time," Olivia sighed in relief, reaching over to rub Reuben's head. Jesse was hugging Reuben in a near death-grip, and Jace was practically standing up to watch the screen, emerald-green eyes wide with horror.

The butcher turned to glare at her as Reuben jumped around to face Jesse with a desperate squeal. " _What's the big idea? I'm trying to run a business here!_ "

Jesse's hands were shaking with both anger and fear as she glared at the butcher. " _That's_ my pig!" she snapped at him.

" _Oh really? Well, I found him out in the woods, so I think that makes him_ MY _pig._ "

"Leave him alone!" Axel yelled as if the butcher could hear him. "Reuben belongs to the Jesses!"

Both Jesse and Jace turned to look at him. "The... Jesses?" Jesse asked him, looking bemused.

"Yeah. Both of your names are Jesse. So you're the Jesses." Axel gestured at Reuben. "Besides, Reuben practically belongs to the both of you at this point." Reuben snuffled in agreement at this. "See, he agrees with me!"

The mocha-haired boy and the black-haired girl looked at one another, then back at Reuben, before conceding the point and turning back to the screen anxiously.

Onscreen, Jesse took a deep breath, before looking at the butcher, her expression becoming desperate. " _Please?"_ she asked pleadingly. " _He's my friend."_

The butcher's expression softened as he looked at Reuben. " _To me, he's inventory... I might be amenable to some kind of trade,"_ he hinted, glancing back up at Jesse.

Jesse's lips twisted hesitantly, before she pulled out the stone sword she'd made earlier. " _Well, all I've got is this sword."_

"Jesse, no!" Petra protested, as if the girl could hear her, "you might need that."

"I might, but I'm not letting Reuben get eaten," Jesse said, tightening her grip on the pig. Reuben let out the faintest complaining squeal, upon which Jesse looked down and relaxed her grip.

Petra frowned. "You probably could've done something else..." she mumbled.

"Like what, threaten him? For all I know he would've thrown that axe at my head," Jesse pointed out.

The butcher hummed onscreen, drawing the audience's attention back to the screen. " _Oh... that's very nice. With this I could cut my butchering time in half."_

Jesse's eyes narrowed at the screen. "Did- did he just make a _pun._ " It was not a question, no matter how much it was stated as one.

There was a pause, before Maya snorted, covering her mouth to try to smother it. It really didn't work.

He hesitated for a moment, before smacking Reuben off the counter onto Jesse's side and taking the sword from her unresisting grip. " _Nice doing business with you!_ " he called after her as Jesse scooped Reuben off the floor and started speed-walking away from the booth, as if she was afraid the butcher might change his mind.

" _I am_ so _sorry, Reuben,"_ she apologized to the pig in her arms, " _I shouldn't have let you run off in the woods."_

Reuben grumbled a bit, but it was evident he wasn't really upset as he nuzzled into her grip. A minute passed before Jesse spotted Olivia, upon which she set Reuben down and jogged over to the girl before tapping her on the shoulder. Olivia immediately turned to look at her. Keeping her voice low, the black-haired girl said mildly, " _Hey, you know that thing I had to do earlier? Long story short, he cheated Petra on a deal, so now we're trying to track him down. Ya in?"_

A grin came over Olivia's face, eyes sparkling with interest. " _Oh, I'm in alright."_

" _Did you find him?_ " Petra asked, racing onscreen with Axel hot on her heels.

Jesse huffed a bit in annoyance and glanced offscreen. " _Nah, I thought I saw him earlier, but it was a false alarm wait there he is!_ " she blurted at the end, swinging her arm to point as her eyes widened.

Everyone swiveled to see Ivor at the entrance of the keynote, panting. He glanced backwards, not seeming to spot them, before rushing into the building.

"I just realized something," Ellegaard spoke up, turning to look at the black-haired man, "Ivor, why are you even _at_ Endercon? You hate conventions. I'm not sure you've even been to one for thirteen years at least."

"And why do you want a Wither Skull?" Soren wondered.

"And why did you cheat Red out of a deal?" Magnus asked, pointing at Petra. The redhead glared at him halfhearted. "My name's Petra," she muttered, once again halfheartedly.

"And _why_ ," Gabriel mused, "are you going to the keynote?"

Ivor glared at them, dark blue eyes hard. "You'll see. You'll all see."

The Order all exchanged slightly worried glances.

" _We have to follow him!_ " And the whole group ran over to the usher. He gave them all a bored look.

Jesse grinned at him sheepishly. " _Um... hi. What would it take... for us to get inside tonight?"_ And she gave him an innocent smile.

The usher blinked. " _Uhh.. tickets."_ He started laughing really hard, as if he'd just made the best joke of all time.

Gabriel sighed.

" _So, uh, here's the thing,"_ Jesse said, fiddling with her hair awkwardly, " _we_ had _tickets, but then we lost them._ "

The usher winced sympathetically. " _Oh man. That sucks, man, I hate when that happens."_

Jesse nodded quickly. " _I know, I feel like_ such _an idiot._ "

He winced apologetically at her, rubbing his head as he apologized, " _I'm sorry, brah, but... no tickets, no show._ "

Suddenly, an escaped chicken fluttered out of nowhere. The usher cowered away with an _extremely_ high-pitched shriek. " _Chiiiiicken! Chicken! Chicken!_ " he nearly squealed in fright.

Gabriel muttered something under his breath that nobody caught.

The chicken wandered away, and the usher quickly straightened back up. " _I-it's okay, it's gone, you're a totally cool dude..."_ He caught sight of the blinking Jesse, and shook his head apologetically. " _Sorry, brah._ "

The four of them walked away, before they all gave each other a look that seemed to say, "Okay, what the heck are we supposed to do now?"

" _How are we going to get past him?_ " Olivia hissed. " _The keynote's been sold out for ages._ "

" _I could get past him,_ " Axel suggested. " _Just need a little wind-up room."_

Jesse's eyes widened, giving him a nervous laugh. " _Haha,_ no."

"Yeah, no, that- that was a very good suggestion," Stampy said, wincing at the thought of what might've happened if Jesse HADN'T vetoed the idea.

She paused, her gaze moving up, before she straightened up, a small smile forming on her face. " _What we need is a distraction."_

Petra turned to see what Jesse was looking at, before a grin formed on her own face. The screen switched to show what they were looking at- some sort of chicken machine. " _A bunch of_ chickens _running around might be a distraction."_

" _And the usher's afraid of chickens!_ " Axel agreed, his own eyes lighting up.

The ghost of a grin formed on Axel's face. "Is this going where I think it is?" he asked, slowly.

Jesse's mischievous smile grew to beauty-pageant proportions. " _What would you say... if I said I wanted to break this guy's chicken machine to create the mother of all distractions?"_


	12. Unexpected

" _But you're going to have to break_ that _pane of glass,_ " Olivia pointed out, pointing at a certain pane of glass up high on the machine, " _how are you going to reach it?_ "

Jesse looked around for a minute, before spotting a guy bouncing on a slime block. She tilted her head thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. " _Hmmm... I think I should be able to reach the glass with a slime block_ ," she said, thoughtfully.

"Hey, that's a pretty good idea," Petra said.

Jesse approached the booth. Her eyes widened a bit as she realized the person who was running it was the person she'd tapped on the shoulder earlier. " _Oh...! Hello!_ " she said, sounding surprised.

The woman herself looked a bit surprised. " _Oh... hello. Did you find the person you were looking for, by the way?_ " she asked, casually.

" _Hm? Oh- yeah, I did. Thanks for asking,"_ Jesse said, still sounding surprised. " _Um- one slime block, please."_

The woman shook her head a bit, seemingly apologetically. " _Sorry- we don't sell slime blocks here. Just slime balls,"_ and she held up a slimy green ball, " _but we've got a limited supply today, and we're only giving out two per customer."_ She tilted her head thoughtfully. " _You_ could _craft a slime block if you had nine slime balls..."_

Jesse winced and rubbed the back of her head. " _Ah, I see..._ "

The two of them were rescued from the rather awkward situation by Axel strolling up behind her. " _A round of slime balls for everyone, please!_ " he requested politely, having apparently heard the conversation.

The screen cut to the four of them walking away, holding slime balls. Jesse suddenly made a soft sound, making the rest of them look at her. " _This is only eight slimeballs... we need one more to make a slime block_ ," she explained.

Petra's gold eyes narrowed. " _Okay, we need another way to get some more slime, and quick,"_ she said, after giving all the slime balls a quick count.

" _On it!_ " And everyone split up to go look for more slime. Jesse looked down at the two slime balls in her hand, before looking up and around at the crowds.

The screen cut to a slime ball spinning in the air, before landing in somebody's hand.

The screen zoomed out to reveal Lukas tossing the slime ball.

"Oh, good," and Petra turned to look at Lukas, "Lukas will let us use his, right Lukas?"

"Of course!"

Aiden looked at Lukas as if the blonde had just grown two heads. "You'd help the _Order of the Losers?_ "

"Aiden, it's Petra," Lukas responded, "she gave us that Nether Star, remember? Besides, why _shouldn't_ I help them, even if Petra _wasn't_ with them?"

"Because they're _losers!_ "

"Great argument, there, sport," Hadrian muttered sarcastically.

Lukas frowned at him. "Yeah, so you've said. Every single time you see them. Yes, they lose the Endercon Building Competition every year. But that doesn't mean they're not good people, alright?"

Olivia turned to stare at them oddly. "Is Lukas _defending_ us?" she asked sotto voce.

Jace stared at Lukas with a confused look. "I'm pretty sure I'm hallucinating."

"All three of us?" Axel whispered back.

"Guys, if _you're_ hallucinating, then so is everyone else in this room," Jesse whispered back, glancing at Lukas as Aiden growled in frustration.

Onscreen, Jesse took a deep breath, before approaching Lukas. " _Hey... Lukas? Could you... do me a favor?_ " she asked, in a rather awkward but hopeful voice.

Lukas caught the slime ball, before looking at her. " _Anything's possible_ ," he said lightly, with a small smile at the end to show he meant no harm.

Jesse smiled back. " _I need slime balls... I swear I have a REALLY good explanation..._ "

Lukas's gaze wasn't focused on her anymore, as Axel, Olivia, and Petra came up behind Jesse. He smiled at the black-haired girl, holding out the slime ball. " _Whatever you guys are doing, count me in."_

" _Thanks, Lukas,_ " Petra said, before adding in an undertone to Jesse, " _told you he was useful._ "

Harper shuddered a bit at that last word for some reason.

Jesse rolled her eyes at Petra, but she was smiling anyway. Jesse went around collecting slime balls from everyone as Axel frowned at Lukas. Lukas had to crane his head back to meet the taller male's eyes. " _Aw, man... this guy isn't actually_ cool _, is he?"_

Olivia crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow at him. " _Remains to be seen._ "

Jesse headed over to a nearby crafting table, placing slime balls down. Lukas and Axel's voices still could be heard while she did that. " _So, uh... you guys been working together long? You've got good chemistry."_

_ "Are you jealous?" _ That was Axel.

" _I'm just saying, I think it's cool that you have a team that works so well together,_ " Lukas responded.

" _You're totally jealous._ "

Jesse laughed at this, making Axel grin at her.

Onscreen Jesse smirked too, before the slime balls all shivered together into a solid, green block. " _Ta-daaaa! One slime block._ " She grinned at it, before her face fell at the sight of it. " _... gross._ "

Olivia reached out with both hands automatically. " _Let me have that-_ " The block seemed to jump into her hands automatically, arms going rather rigid as she took ahold of it. Both girls looked at the block, before Olivia turned away awkwardly and went to a spot between the machine and a nearby booth. " _Riiiight..._ " And the block jumped back out. " _Here."_

Jesse turned to Axel. " _Gimme a boost!_ "

Axel helped the girl up, her hand still a little shy of the roof of the booth-

A string of silk shot out of her hand and attached to the top.

Jesse looked around quickly before she climbed rapidly, hiding it with her body as she squirmed onto the roof and scraped off the string as she climbed on top of the roof of the booth. She looked at the slime block, before backing away. She hesitated, before running forwards, launching herself off of the booth, feet slamming into the block solidly, before rebounding into the air. She let out a laugh. " _Wheeee!_ " She drew her fist back in midair and solidly slammed it into the pane of glass, shattering it and allowing chickens to flood from the opening.

She landed in another parkour roll, ending up on her butt as the booth owner ran past her. " _My poultry! My precious poultry!_ " he wailed.

The usher charged forward as well. " _Keep your eyes closed! They'll peck out your eyes!"_ he warned, just as a chicken bowled him over, hopping all over him- including his face.

Jesse blinked at this. " _These chickens are_ vicious," she joked, before running for the keynote, followed by her friends. This went completely unnoticed due to the usher having gotten knocked over by all the chickens.

"Okay, so we got past the usher," Petra said, hopping in place, "one thing down, lots more to go!"

"You're all quite stubborn, aren't you?" Lizzie asked them.

" _No one_ messes with Petra," Jesse, Jace, Axel, Olivia, and Lukas chorused in unison.

Petra grinned at this.

The screen came back on to show the five of them running into the keynote- six if you included Reuben. The show hadn't started yet, so nobody was there. Ivor was nowhere in sight, though.

" _Where'd he go?"_ Petra demanded.

Jesse looked around, before pointing at a door that was slightly ajar. " _Well, that seems as likely a place as anywhere else... cliche, though."_

They all rushed for the door, but Lukas paused a few meters away. " _What do we do once we catch him?"_

Everyone looked at one another, as Lukas continued, " _there are a million ways to play this."_

" _Whatever we have to_ ," Jesse said coolly.

Lukas seemed a bit taken aback by this answer. " _You're way more intense than I gave you credit for, Jesse,_ " he said, sounding surprised.

"I know," Petra agreed. "Fighting those monsters on the bridge, threatening Aiden... I never would've guessed."

Jesse's faint smile faded as she turned to stare directly ahead. There was a long pause, before she finally said, a little more brusquely than usual, "Yeah, well, I'll do anything when it comes to my friends."

Jesse smiled innocently. " _If you mess with my friends, I will_ break _you_ ," she said cheerfully, before disappearing through the door, leaving Lukas to blink after her nervously.

Jesse poked her head around the corner at the bottom of the staircase, eyes widening. " _Is... this what we were expecting?"_ she asked slowly.

The others poked their heads around the corner as well, their own eyes widening.

"I still can't believe you're helping them," Gill mumbled.

Lukas opened his mouth to say something, hesitated, and then shut it with a slight shake of the head.

It seemed to be some sort of library, potions and books shoved onto every shelf and available space except for the floor. " _What IS this place?_ " Olivia wondered, looking around tentatively.

" _Looks like the basement_ ," Jesse murmured, " _I guess he must've gone out a different way or something, then."_

"You kids better not touch anything," Ivor growled.

Petra glared at him. "We wouldn't even BE there if you'd just stuck to your end of the deal, you little sh-"

"Let's just watch the thing, okay?" Jace interrupted loudly before Petra could unleash a twenty-word-long string of swears.

" _I'll bet you_ anything _my skull's down here_ ," Petra said seriously, looking around the basement.

The screen cut to show Axel walking excitedly past shelves, already eyeing some of the stuff. " _And if we find anything else to steal along the way, so be it, right?_ " he asked, eyes practically glowing with interest.

"I just told you not to touch anything!" Ivor snapped.

"He can't hear you," Jesse reminded him.

"Take it all! Take it all! Take it all!" Magnus chanted, the gladiators joining in with a little too _much_ enthusiasm.

Petra scowled at Axel. " _Axel- that's not what we're here to do."_

" _I did say we should do whatever we had to..._ " Jesse murmured. This was obviously not the answer Petra wanted to hear, because she turned her scowl onto the black-haired girl. Axel took advantage of Jesse's comment.

" _And if the guy's not here, then what we_ have _to do is steal._ "

"Yes!" Magnus fist-pumped the air, nearly elbowing Soren in the face, "I _like_ this guy!"

Axel's grin was practically splitting his face.

" _I don't want to stoop to his level_ ," Petra was quick to argue right back.

Jesse nodded at last. " _Let's just get the skull and get out of here- this place is kinda creepy._ "

Magnus, Axel, and the gladiators all let out a loud groan of disappointment. Ivor let out the slightest sigh- although if it was relief or something else, no one could tell.

Axel scowled. " _No one ever lets me have any fun,_ " he complained, jokingly.

" _We let you hang out with us, don't we?_ " Jesse was quick to reply. She straightened up and trotted down the stairs. " _The faster we find what we're looking for, the faster we can get out of here._ "

Everyone split up, dispersing among the shelves. Even Reuben trotted off to go have a look. Jesse's eyes skimmed the shelves, but as she was about to turn a corner, she stopped. Slowly, she backtracked a step so that she was staring at the shelves, a single book standing out to her- an old, red, leatherbound volume with a faint symbol and words etched into the binding.

Ivor's brow furrowed. "Huh. I don't think that book's actually in my library..." he muttered, under his breath, although everyone could hear it loud and clear. "I wonder what it is..."

Jesse leaned closer to the book. _B.O.A._ , the binding read. She raised her eyes to look at the symbol on the binding as well. It looked like a human head, but halfway across the symbol changed to a wolf head that flawlessly mixed with the human one.

Jesse's eyes widened, and the softest gasp escaped her mouth. She reached out automatically and pulled the book off the shelf, a thin volume that had maybe 100 pages in it, maximum. She flipped through it, different handwriting styles in the book that repeated, before shutting it and putting it in her pocket. " _Who knows, maybe this thing is useful_ ," she said, her hands quivering slightly.

Everyone glanced at Ivor, but he didn't actually complain at this- probably since he didn't own the book.

Turning the corner, she spotted Petra rummaging through a chest. Petra took out something that Jesse couldn't see, since her back was blocking it. " _Oh, what do we have here..._ " She suddenly pivoted and lashed out, making Jesse jump back in just time as the gold sword tip scratched her nose. " _Jeez, decapitate me, would ya?_ " Jesse joked.

The redhead chuckled awkwardly. " _Ahaha- sorry._ " She gave the sword a cursory look. " _Anyway, it's too heavy. And too soft._ "

" _But super flashy_ ," Jesse teased.

Petra gave the blade a look. " _Yeah. Hey, you still have that one stone sword I gave you, right?"_

Jesse sighed and looked down at the ground. " _Nope, I had it to give it to some butcher to save Reuben's life._ " Petra winced sympathetically at this.

_ "Jeez... well, I guess it was for a good cause. Here," _ and she pushed the gold sword into Jesse's hands.

Jesse raised her eyebrows at Real-Petra. "What happened to not stooping to his level?"

"Being armed in case something bad happens is more important," Petra responded promptly. Ivor scowled at the redhead. "Oh, come on!" he complained.

" _Thanks_ ," Jesse said with a small smile, sheathing it.

Petra grinned back at the dark-haired female. " _Don't lose that one,"_ she joked.

Jesse trotted along again, until she came across a glowing violet potion with luminous glass. " _Oh, hey!_ " she exclaimed quietly, sounding impressed, " _check this out!_ "

"Oh, no no no no no," Ivor practically chanted, having gone almost pure _white_ , "leave that alone! Get out of my basement, you idiots!"

" _You're not going to believe me_ ," Axel said, making Jesse jump a bit, " _but I SWEAR I had a dream about this. Okay, potion... I know this is a big step, but I'd be honored if you'd come home with me._ "

Jesse shook her head at him. " _Axel, no. Make yourself useful-_ " Harper shuddered again. " _\- and go find that skull._ "

" _I am..._ " and then Axel took the potion anyway.

"NO!" Ivor literally _screamed_ , making Harper flinch and turn to him with a look of surprise, fuming and almost _white_ with rage and fear as he launched himself out of the chair. The screen quickly paused, courtesy of Jesse, since she was still commandeering the remote. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU JUST DID!"

"I-Ivor, ca-calm down," Ellegaard said, sounding startled. "None of this has even happened yet-"

"No, you don't understand!" Ivor was pacing the floor so rapidly that he actually made the carpet wrinkle under his feet. "If they take the potion- and if I lose control of-" Dawning horror in his eyes. "Oh, blast...!"

"Lose control of... what?" Jace asked, slowly, eyes narrowing in confusion.

"What's going on?" Gabriel's tone sharpened as he stood up, taking one step towards the pacing man. "What are you planning to do? Ivor, why did you need a Wither Skull?"

Ivor turned to glare at Gabriel, venom in his voice and hatred practically burning in his eyes. "Oh, you'll see. You'll all-" He paused, his gaze moving from Gabriel to Jace to someone else off to the side. "... Jesse?" he asked, finally, sounding confused.

Jace turned around to see what Ivor was staring at.

Jesse's knees were drawn up to her chest as best as she could with Reuben still in her lap, her body trembling violently, eyes squeezed shut so tightly that it actually forced tears from under her eyelids, hands clamped tightly over her ears. There was this almost animalistic, but nearly inaudible keening sound, and after a moment everyone realized that it was coming from Jesse.

"Hey... Jesse?" Jace reached out to touch Jesse's shoulder, but she scooted away from his touch, trembling like a leaf. She seemed to be trapped in some sort of dark place that they couldn't get her out of.

"Jesse?" Jace repeated softly, before reaching out and taking ahold of her wrists carefully. Jesse's trembling abruptly ceased, before slowly opening her eyes to stare at Jace. There was a moment of uncomprehension as she stared at Jace, green eyes dull and blank, before she said, blankly yet lightly, "Did I do it again?"

"Do what again?" This was from Maya, who looked totally perplexed by this order of events.

Jesse stared at Jace for a minute, before completely relaxing and turning back to face the screen. "It's nothing. Let's just get back to watching this. Grab my wrists if I ever do that again."

"What was-"

"I don't want to talk about it, if you don't mind my saying so." Her tone was light and conversational, but that one sentence brought whatever discussion might've happened to an abrupt halt.

Everyone stared at her, before turning back to the screen as she pressed the play button again.

Jesse was giving Axel a deadpan look. " _Uhh, nope, you're_ literally _doing the exact opposite of what I just asked you to do. Besides, there's no way he's not going to notice his fancy potion's missing._ "

Axel looked around quickly. " _A good thief covers his tracks_ ," and he snagged a nearby bottle of violet potion that didn't glow. Actually, unless you stared at it for a minute, it was difficult to tell the difference. He popped the glowing bottle into place, loudly whispered, " _Fixed it!_ " and went back off.

Jesse rolled her eyes with a smile. " _Oh, yeah. The perfect crime._ "

She glanced at where the violet potion had been sitting, before walking over and toggling the lever that had been behind it. The bookshelf Olivia had been scrutinizing made a loud clicking sound as it slid down.

Ivor's teeth gritted. "They _found it_ ," he hissed, eyes narrowing. "Dammit, they _found_ it."

The bookshelf disappeared into the floor to reveal a T made of some strange... sand, or something, with a glowing, machine-like block in the center. A chest rested at the foot of the T.

The Order of the Stone all gasped in unison, the color draining from their faces.

"Ivor," Soren said, voice shaky, "what- what are you doing?"

"Why do you have the Command- _how_ do you have the _Command Block_?" Ellegaard asked, turning to stare at Ivor.

"What's a 'Command Block'?" Nell asked, wonderingly. Nobody answered her question.

"Is that Soul Sand?" Petra wondered.

Onscreen, Jesse frowned at the setup, almost as if it were familiar.

" _What is this stuff?_ " Olivia asked.

" _Soul Sand_ ," Petra replied immediately, " _it's everywhere in the Nether._ "

Olivia stepped forward, reaching towards the block with a strange look on her face. " _I wonder what that block in the middle is... it's almost... pulsing. Maybe if I could just-_ "

Jesse seized Olivia's arm, cutting off the dark-skinned girl with this utterly panicked expression on her face. Olivia's fingers had been mere centimeters from touching the block. " _Are you insane?! Don't just touch it!"_ she whisper-shouted, " _it could be dangerous!_ "

Olivia nodded at this. Jesse let go of Olivia's arm and said, less panicked, " _Remember what we're all here for- find that skull._ "

Olivia nodded again, and Jesse turned to look at the chest in front of the T. She leaned down to open it.

The screen switched to show Jesse lifting the lid of the chest, her eyes widening. She froze stock-still, before speaking, in a strangely affected voice, " _Um, so, good news, weird news, bad news. Good news, I found the skull. Weird news..._ "

Petra's expression changed to a scowl as she leaned to look over Jesse's shoulder. " _What the hell? Why'd I risk my neck for that skull if he's already got two other ones?_ " she asked, sounding extremely annoyed.

" _That's... part of the bad news._ " Jesse's position still hadn't changed from where she was holding the lid open. There was a long pause, before she spoke unsteadily, " _I think this guy's trying to build a Wither._ "


	13. Deities, Heaven, and Explosions

Everyone's eyes widened as they turned to stare at Ivor with open mouths, who was glaring at the screen as if he'd like to burn it.

" _A... Wither?_ " Petra gaped at the chest, before looking back at Jesse. " _But... that's-_ "

" _One of the worst monsters there is!_ " Lukas burst out, blue-green eyes wide with horror.

"And he gets all of the ingredients, plus the Command Block," Gabriel said slowly, his face almost _gray_ , "on the exact night of the keynote?"

Jesse stare uncomfortably down at the chest for a few moments. " _Well, we came here to find the skull. We found it. Maybe we should just- grab it, and go. While we still can._ "

Too late. The sound of footsteps clacking on stone steps could be heard.

" _Scatter!_ " Petra hissed.

Jesse reacted immediately as Reuben flipped the lever again, the bookshelf rising to block the Wither setup from sight, everyone fanning out into the shelves. She vaulted over a shelf into a small niche, ducking down as far as she could. Feet appeared onscreen as Jesse shrank even lower.

" _Don't you recognize me?!_ " Ivor shouted, and for a horrifying moment everyone was sure that Ivor had spotted them.

Until he continued a moment later, " _Or, wait... surprised to see me?!_ " He passed Petra onscreen right as he shouted the last two words, making the redhead flinch a bit.

Jesse turned to stare at Ivor, who'd gone back to sitting in his armchair. "Are you practicing villain lines?" she asked, slowly, eyebrow raised.

He grumbled slightly, not meeting anyone's eyes.

" _Or, no, that's... 'didn't expect to see me, now did you?!'... THAT'S better."_

The screen passed over Jesse, who was crouched but still listening, before following Ivor into the room where the Wither setup was. Axel was pressed up against the wall between a bookshelf, and Reuben was hiding on the potion shelf.

"Okay, how did he not see you?" Dan asked, practically perched on the edge of the couch in excitement.

Ivor paused in his tracks, before turning to look over his shoulder. However, there was nothing on the shelf.

Everyone in the room, except for Ivor and the three bullies, let out a tremendous sigh of relief.

Ivor walked past the fake-fancy potion. Reuben poked his head out from behind the stand, remaining quieter than a mouse. Ivor knelt down to look through a chest. Olivia straightened up to get a better look, but as she put her hands down on the shelf to help herself up, her hand bumped a potion bottle and knocked it to the floor, making it clink upon hitting the floor.

Ivor whipped back up and around, with narrowed eyes. " _Who's there?"_ he asked, warily.

Lukas groaned. "Oh. So this is how I die. Fantastic."

Ivor made his way to where Olivia was hiding, having spotted the potion bottle on the floor, beginning to round the corner where Olivia was hiding in the same way Petra was, pressing her back against the bookshelves. The dark-skinned girl appeared to be muttering a prayer to Notch and Jeb and who knows who else?

"We're dead. We're dead!" Lukas threw his hands into the air, his voice having risen an octave or two in slight panic. "Nice to have known you all. I shall speak of you in heaven."

"What makes you so sure you're going to heaven? You're cute as hell- wait, what the hell just came out of my mouth. Forget it. FORGET IT," Jesse said, beginning to turn bright red at the gaping crowd. "I DIDN'T SAY THAT, SHUT UP, I'M SORRY I FLIRT WITH EVERY HUMAN BEING ON THE PLANET. I'M LIKE FRISK FROM UNDERTALE. SHUT UP." She whipped back around to stare at the screen.

Petra spoke up tentatively a minute later, the black-haired girl staring determinedly at the screen. "Um, Jesse-"

"NOPE."

Axel tried this time. "Jes-"

"NOPE."

"J-"

"NOPE. NO. END OF DISCUSSION. CAN WE MOVE ON NOW?" Jesse was being overly loud, her face was bright red, and she was shaking with embarrassment as she gazed resolutely at the screen. Lukas's face was rather pink too as he stared at the ceiling.

There was a full moment of silence as everyone processed this.

"Well, that was definitely flirting."

Honestly, Gill probably deserved the pillow both Lukas and Jesse proceeded to chuck at his face.

Onscreen, Jesse vaulted out of her hiding spot. " _Hey, you!_ " she shouted.

Olivia let out a little sigh, deciding to let the awkward moment slide. "Thanks, Jesse. I mean, we still got caught, but he didn't find me."

Ivor spun around, glaring at Jesse. " _What are you doing here?!_ " he demanded, before a look of horror crossed his face, and he asked, in a quieter voice, " _What did you see?_ "

" _Leave her alone!_ " Petra shouted, rushing out from behind the shelf. Axel did the same, stepping out and crossing his arms with a sharp glare at Ivor.

" _Yeah, back off, pal._ "

Jesse sent the both of them a grateful look.

Ivor looked from Petra to Jesse, anger dawning on his features. " _You two! Did you_ follow _me here?"_

" _You thought you could just screw us over and get away with it, didn't you?!_ " Petra demanded to know, gold irises practically ablaze with fury.

"Well... yes," Ivor admitted. "Yes, I did."

" _We're here to prove you wrong_ ," Jesse finished sharply, as her friends moved to stand in a semicircle around the dark-haired male.

Ivor sneered at the two of them. " _What are you going to do about it? I have what I want, and you have exactly what you earned._ "

"I got you a _Wither_ Skull!" Petra barked angrily at the male, "I should've been asking for _way_ more than a diamond!"

" _We're not stupid, Ivor!_ " Jesse snapped at the robed man, her fists clenching. " _Soul Sand, and three Wither Skulls- you're building a freaking Wither!_ "

Ivor's eyes widened for a moment, before regaining his composure. " _Huh. Smarter than you look._ "

Jesse frowned at him but didn't say anything.

Axel stepped forward, literally towering over Ivor as he glared at him. " _Hey, nobody talks to my friends like that, and I mean NOBODY. Now shut your mouth,_ or else. _"_ He nearly spat the last two words in a fury.

Ivor growled and threw his hands into the air. " _Enough! You've wasted enough of my time already,_ " and he turned on his heel and sprinted off into the bookshelves, Jesse and the other four being quick to follow him.

They reached the spot near the stairs, looking around rapidly. Ivor had seemed to vanish from sight. " _Where'd he go?!_ " Petra asked, searching around.

Suddenly, Ivor was standing behind four iron blocks stacked in a T, holding a pumpkin. " _If you won't leave of your own volition,_ " the black-haired man snarled, eyes sparking with anger.

"Ivor, no!" Gabriel shouted, eyes widening.

Jesse whirled around, a gasp tearing out of her throat as Ivor tipped the pumpkin into place, " _I'll happily remove you_ myself!"

" _Oh, snapcrackers_ ," Olivia whispered, her face having gone several shades paler in fear.

" _Show our friends the door, will you?_ " Ivor sneered at them, and the golem swung one of its massive arms at them. Screaming, all of them ducked out of the way as a gust of wind ruffled their hair and clothing as the iron arm whipped over their heads. Jesse dove away as the golem swung again, this time making contact violently with Olivia-

The dark-skinned girl suddenly bleeped out of sight, reappearing in a spray of purple and pink sparks a few feet out of the reach of the swinging arm.

"Whoa!" Axel exclaimed, straightening up.

Olivia looked bewildered, before diving away again as the golem regained its balance and swiped at her again, bellyflopping onto the stone floor with a grunt of pain.

The screen switched to Axel, backpedaling rapidly as the iron golem advanced on him, making this odd hissing sound in fear, eyes growing to the size of dinner plates. Suddenly, he started flashing white.

"Ah," Em said quietly. "That would- that explains a lot."

" _What in the-_ " Olivia's comment was cut off, because a white-hot explosion slammed all of them back. Jesse's back slammed into the wall, making the black-haired girl grown in pain as she rubbed her throbbing head.

Everyone winced sympathetically at this.

Reuben let out a whine from where he was in her lap. Olivia had merely flipped over, since she'd been practically flattened on the floor, but Petra had gotten blasted to the foot of the stairs, eyes squeezed shut in pain. Axel was tense and standing there with shock, staring at the iron golem- which had gotten blasted into the opposite wall- and wisps of smoke curling off of his body.

"Did," Magnus spoke in the shocked silence that ensued, "did he just... explode?"

Hadrian slowly nodded, staring at the screen. "In... in a sense?"

Petra was the first to recover- she staggered to her feet before whirling around and bolting up the stairs. Olivia bleeped into place at the bottom of the steps, following suit. Axel recovered and raced after them after a moment's pause, Jesse scooping up her pink pig and rushing after them.

They burst into the back of the crowd at the keynote, Jesse setting Reuben down as she panted heavily, hands shaking a little bit. " _I-is everyone okay?"_ she asked over Gabriel's distant voice, gasping for breath.

" _I- I think so,_ " Petra agreed. Olivia, however, had straightened up and started looking around, alarm registering in her eyes.

"Hey, wait-" Nell spoke up suddenly, her eyes narrowing. "Where's-?"

" _Um... guys?_ " Olivia sounded frightened. Jesse lifted her head to look at Olivia, still panting.

The next two words made the entire audience's eyes widen, and for onscreen-Jesse's irises shrink to pinpricks in the whites of her eyes in horror.

" _Where's Lukas?_ "


	14. Rescue Mission: Activate!

"Oh. So." Lukas let out a long sigh. "I guess I do die down there. Wonderful."

Jesse looked behind her as if checking to confirm that no, Lukas was not, in fact, behind her. Of course, he wasn't. " _I- I thought he was right behind me!_ " she gasped.

" _Well, if he's not here, then the only place he could be is..._ " Axel trailed off, eyes widening in shock, and Jesse finished the thought, whirling back around to the door. " _He's still down there!_ "

Petra bit her lip, eyes widening. " _Ivor has an iron golem, and all the ingredients to make a Wither down there! If he was to unleash it on this crowd of people..._ " Her eyes went wider than dinner plates in horror. " _We have to act fast!_ "

Olivia jerked her head at Gabriel, who was going on about feeling pressure about coming to the keynote or something or other. " _It just so happens that the greatest warrior of all time is in the building- we can ask Gabriel to help! This is the smartest way to help Lukas."_

"I guess I'm stupid then," Jesse mumbled quietly, although still loud enough for Reuben and Jace to hear her. Both of them looked at her in confusion. "Why?" Jace whispered back.

" _He's tough,"_ Petra agreed, " _I just hope he's tough enough to hold out for a bit longer."_

"That's true," Lukas said, "I mean, I'm not sure there's much you guys could do about that golem. If Gabriel went down there he could probably smash it to pieces."

"Glad you think of it like that," Petra said, smiling at Lukas.

Onscreen, though, Jesse was shaking her head, having come to a decision. " _I'm going after Lukas myself,_ " she said firmly.

"That's why," Jesse whispered back to Jace.

"I- _what?!_ " Lukas gasped, turning around to stare at Jesse. Aiden was staring with his mouth open, and Maya and Gill were staring at Jesse with what seemed to be almost _respect_.

Petra's eyes widened. " _By... yourself? A-are you sure, Jesse?"_ she asked, sounding slightly admiring.

Jesse hesitated as she looked back at the redhead. "... _yeah..._ " she said after a moment, turning back to her friends. " _The rest of you, go get Gabriel."_

" _We're on it, Jesse,_ " Olivia agreed instantly, both eyes brightening. Petra piped up with her own smile, " _We'll find a way to warn Gabriel and then we'll meet you back here._ "

" _Let's crash this party_ ," Axel nodded enthusiastically.

" _Be back as soon as I can,"_ Jesse responded, crossing her heart and covering one eye. All of them grinned at the sign of her little oath.

Petra gave the black-haired girl a long look, the grin fading, before quietly uttering, " _Be careful._ "

"You're- you're actually going back for me," Lukas said, eyes practically sparkling with gratitude. If he was a character in an anime, he'd be sparkling right about now. He looked over at real-Jesse. "Thank you, Jesse."

"Like I said," Jesse said, giving him a light but warm smile, "I'll do anything when it comes to my friends."

The Ocelots automatically glanced at Lukas, whose mouth was partially open as he stared at Jesse with wide eyes, as though expecting him to laugh or at least decline that they were friends.

Instead, Lukas turned back to the screen.

Jesse opened the door back to the basement, staring down into the darkness. " _... here goes nothing_ ," she said finally, before beginning to descend the staircase. " _Alright... not sure how I'm gonna get Lukas without- A) getting my head knocked off by the iron golem, or B) getting spotted by the iron golem, since A is not a good option-_ "

She stepped off the stairs and cut herself off abruptly as she immediately whipped back around the corner, slamming her back into the wall and slapping a hand over her mouth as the golem looked in her direction, eyes wide. Reuben also remained utterly silent.

"Oh, Notch, _more_ danger," Olivia groaned. "Of course there's _more_ danger."

"You're quite brave, Jesse," Gabriel said in awe. "I can respect a person like that."

Jace elbowed the black-haired girl in the ribs, making her look over at him. "You just got the greatest warrior of all time to _respect_ you!" he whispered, eyes lit up with excitement. She grinned back at him.

After a whole minute, Jesse slowly poked her head back around the corner, and tiptoed into the bookshelves when she saw no sign of the iron golem. " _Lukas! Can you... hear me?_ " she whispered loudly.

" _Jesse?_ " Jesse looked back as Lukas's blue-green eyes peeked over the lip of a chest, one hand keeping the lid lifted up. His eyes were filled with surprise. " _You- you came back for me?_ " he asked, voice tinged with surprise.

A relieved smile came over Jesse's face. " _Lukas! Over here!_ " and she gestured towards her.

The screen switched back as Lukas's eyes shifted, his eyes widened, and he let the lid shut over his head.

The screen went back to Jesse's, whose smile fell into a frown. " _And... it's... right behind me, isn't it._ " She twisted to see the golem glaring down at her with blazing red eyes.

"GAH!" Axel yelped, jumping back. Lukas put a hand over his rapidly thumping heart, Petra bounced on her seat, and Olivia squeaked before slapping her hands over her eyes.

Jesse dodged out of the way as it swiped clumsily at her, but the space she could move in was limited-

" _Hey!_ " The golem looked away as the lid of Lukas's chest shut, Jesse lunging into the nearest niche and crouching down so that it couldn't see her.

Upon seeing that Jesse was no longer standing there, and being too stupid to look around, it lumbered away.

" _You okay?_ " Jesse whispered to Lukas. Immediately she winced at her choice of words.

Lukas's eyes peeped through the crack between the lid and the actual chest. " _I've... been worse,_ " he whispered back. " _Of course, I can't say this is the_ best _situation I've ever been in... any bright ideas?_ "

Jesse thought about this for a second. "... _I think so. One second._ "

And the next moment, she jumped out of the niche. " _Hey!_ " she shouted at the golem.

"I'm pretty sure he said 'bright' ideas, Jesse," Em drawled sarcastically.

Olivia groaned again and covered her eyes back up. "Ohhh don't die, Jesse."

The golem turned to see her, but Jesse was already lifting her palm and poking the tip of her tongue out of her mouth. For a single, terrifying moment, nothing happened, before a huge, heavy strand of silk shot out of her palm and slammed into the golem's chest, making it stagger back a step.

The screen sped up again as Jesse darted around the screen, the golem slowly swinging at her while streams of white silk poured from her hands, before it slowed back down to normal speed as Jesse landed on the stone floor again, scraping off the silk that was still protruding from her hands, before turning.

The screen switched to show the golem tangled up in the world's most elaborate spiderweb like a fly, struggling amongst the swathes of white silk.

"Okay, that was awesome," Nell said, grinning at Jesse. "Radical, brah!"

"Thank you, I think...?"

" _Jesse_?"

Jesse turned to see Lukas still staring at her, eyes wide with stunned shock. She didn't waste any time. " _Hurry, it's not going to keep the golem forever!_ " she hissed, and Lukas scrambled out of the chest, racing after Reuben and Jesse through the bookshelves.

"Thank you," Lukas repeated. "Seriously, I owe you one, Jesse."

"I haven't done anything yet," Jesse replied with a shrug.

"Yet," Lukas pointed out.

" _Axel's explosion knocked me back into the shelves,_ " onscreen-Lukas was saying, " _and by the time I managed to get up again it was too late. Thanks for coming back for me, Jesse. Didn't know if anyone would._ "

Jesse turned to grin at him. " _No problem, Lukas_ ," she replied, " _what are friends for?_ "

The blonde blinked at her, his hair twitching again, before a small smile formed on his own face. " _Thanks, Jesse. I owe you one._ "

" _No problem,_ " Jesse repeated, before jerking her head at her spiderweb. " _Now, I would explain how I did that, but right now we should probably get out of here before the golem rips through, and try to stop Ivor from spawning his Wither._ "

" _That's probably a good idea,_ " Lukas joked back, making Jesse grin back at him before the two of them rushed back up the stairs and out of the basement. The screen faded to black.

Jesse's faint smile had faded, and she was staring intently at the screen. This didn't go unnoticed by Jace. "Something wrong, Jess?" he asked curiously.

"... I just have the feeling," she spoke slowly, hands tightening in her lap as she did so, "that something is going to go _horribly_ wrong soon."


	15. A Wither is Born

The three of them emerged from the staircase, looking around. " _Where are the others?_ " Lukas asked, before they heard Axel's voice. They looked over to see the burly boy flailing his arms in an attempt to convince Gabriel.

" _Dude, I dunno how I can be any clearer! Weird dude! Doing weird stuff! Freaky with a side of strange! Why won't you believe me?_ "

Gabriel arched his eyebrow. "You're, uh, not being very clear, there."

"He's probably trying to say it without causing massive panic," Jesse said, before grinning a bit and covering her mouth. "I, um, I must say, though, no offense Axel, but you're not doing a very clear job of it."

Axel grinned back sheepishly.

" _Do you want me to tell you charades-style?_ "

"Oh please no," Gabriel said, slapping his hand over his face, "that would be worse than Soren's singing."

Soren blinked at Gabriel, a hurt sort of look coming over his face. "What's wrong with my singing?"

Onscreen, Lukas and Jesse giggled a bit as they moved towards the others.

" _Believe me,_ " Gabriel said, sounding exasperated himself, " _that's the LAST thing I want you to do._ "

The giggles amplified.

" _Four words. Six syllables. Sounds like: 'schmonster in the schmasement'._ " Olivia rolled her eyes at Axel.

Jesse and Lukas were giggling so hard that Jesse was actually totally _silent_ from how acute her giggles were. This was making most of the audience snicker or giggle themselves- Jesse's laughter was contagious. Lukas was making the weirdest face from trying not to laugh.

Gabriel facepalmed, both on and off-screen. " _Next_ ," he said tiredly.

Olivia spoke up, quickly. " _Wait, just-_ "

She was interrupted by a voice that made onscreen-Lukas and Jesse stop giggling. "I _have a question for you._ "

"Oh, crap," Olivia said, touching her lip, "is that who I think it is...?"

Onscreen, Jesse looked at Lukas with this look that said "How in the name of Notch did this guy get up here without us seeing him?"

Lukas spread his arms out in a way that said, "How am I supposed to know?"

Gabriel looked in Ivor's direction. " _Excuse me, sir. You'll have to wait your turn."_

"What do people even ask you about?" Jace mused.

Gabriel shrugged a bit. "It really depends. Some ask me what the Ender Dragon looked like... others ask me what Ellegaard's favorite food was."

"What is- or was- or whatever it is- it?" Jesse asked, twisting around.

"Bread," Gabriel and Ellegaard chorused.

" _Just tell me this- do you truly believe that ANYONE can be great?_ " Ivor asked, moving through the crowd. Gabriel simply shrugged and put his hands on his hips.

" _With enough hard work, yes._ "

" _Was_ that _where I went wrong?!_ " Ivor literally spat, shoving past a few members of the crowd and coming to the base of the stage, " _I simply didn't_ work _hard enough?!_ "

Gabriel's eyes widened. " _Ivor?_ " he gasped. " _Is that really you?_ "

"So you _do_ know each other," Petra said, eyes narrowing, "but how?"

"It's... a long story," Soren replied quietly.

Jesse looked from Ivor to Gabriel. " _You know him?_ " she asked mildly, simply arching one eyebrow.

Gabriel glanced down at the girl with her left eye covered by a wave of hair, making eye contact with her. " _I don't know if I ever really_ did _know him. But what I did know... I didn't like._ " He shot Ivor a glare.

" _The feeling is entirely mutual,_ " Ivor seethed, walking onto the stage, " _why don't you tell them the real story,_ Gabriel?!" He spit out the name as if were poison.

"Real story? What real story?" Lukas asked, brow furrowing. "What the heck is Ivor talking about?"

" _I see time has made you bitter,_ " Gabriel responded to Ivor's accusation calmly.

" _And it's made_ you _an even bigger_ fool _,"_ Ivor shot back, right up in Gabriel's face now. " _These people were promised greatness, and I'm ready to deliver._ "

He started walking towards the back of the stage. Ivor was still very pale, but now he was muttering at a million miles an hour under his breath, hands shaking- although with rage or something else, no one could tell.

" _Gabriel, you have to stop him!_ " Jesse shouted to the warrior.

The warrior glanced at her, then back at Ivor, a strange look that seemed to be a mix of uncertainty and... apology... coming over his face.

The Wither setup rose and clicked into place, but this one had one skull at each end of the T. Ivor pulled out a skull- _Petra's_ skull- and turned to glare at Gabriel. " _I'm sorry this is how they had to learn the truth._ "

Gabriel's eyes widened as Ivor turned back to the Wither and tipped the skull into place. " _Ivor,_ NO! _"_

It was too late. An explosion sent both of them flying off of the stage. A Wither rose from the stage, the strange, machine-like block- the Command Block- resting in its ribcage.

"Oh _crap_ ," Cassie said faintly, vocalizing what every person in the room was thinking.

Ivor stood up as people started screaming and running, a hard look in his eyes. " _Creature- attack!_ " he ordered.

The Command Block glowed at the order, and the Wither started flying around the keynote, making people panic and start to flee, screaming in terror. Jesse looked around, before back up at the Wither, which was shooting a flaming skull-

Jesse dove out of the way, the fireball blasting a crater where she'd been standing only seconds before. Scrambling to her feet, she dodged another one as it soared over her head, barely missing her neck, and blasted apart the floor.

"Are you trying to kill us all?!" Gabriel yelled at Ivor.

Ivor glared back. "I'm not trying to kill anyone! If they hadn't meddled in things they didn't understand the Wither would be under my control!" he shouted back, furiously.

"Well then you shouldn't have scammed Petra out of her diamond," Jace snapped back.

Things started getting a bit weirder as parts of the floor, the walls, a few posters, a flowerpot, any and everything, started soaring towards the Wither, compacting with it and making it start to gain in size, making it bigger than it had been before.

Jesse looked over at Lukas. He was shaking like a leaf, eyes wide, looking like he wanted to bolt up a tree and stay there until the danger was gone.

" _Everyone, stay calm!_ " Gabriel shouted, drawing his sword, " _this foul beast is no match for me!_ "

"You can't go up against the _Command Block,_ who knows what might happen?!" Ellegaard practically yelled at the warrior. He winced and rubbed his ears.

"What are you shouting at me for?! I can't hear you onscreen, can I?!"

Ivor pointed at Gabriel, looking almost like a naughty child tattling on another one. " _Creature- attack!_ "

Gabriel leapt up and hit it with his sword. The Command Block didn't even dent, and he rebounded and slammed into the floor. Hard. Sword skittering out of reach. Everyone who wasn't in the Order gasped. Magnus was perched on the edge of his seat.

" _Gabriel-_ " Jesse began, stepping forward to help, but Gabriel scrambled to his feet, whirling around. " _No! Stay away!_ " he ordered her, making her stop in her tracks, fear showing in his eyes, " _It's after me, not you!_ "

" _Look at him, the might Gabriel!_ " Ivor mocked, and Jesse shot him a glare. " _He might not be able to stop this creature, but I can!_ "

Jesse looked up at the Wither, getting bigger by the second, before looking back at Ivor. " _I_ highly _doubt that._ "

" _Creature- retreat!_ " Ivor commanded the Wither.

The Wither did nothing but turn to look at him. The center head was black, with a single, glowing indigo eye. It was basically the perfect nightmare fuel. Ivor cleared his throat.

" _Uh- ahem-_ " He shouted again, enunciating this time, " _Creature- retreat!_ "

It began to advance towards him, and he snapped, losing all patience, " _Retreat, I said!_ "

" _Ivor,_ " Jesse snapped at him, " _what in the name of Notch are you_ doing?!"

Ivor glanced at her and back to the Wither. " _Uh, no need to worry, my friends-_ "

" _We're not friends,_ " Petra, Axel, Jesse, Olivia, and Lukas all chorused. This prompted a few weak chuckles from the audience, although they were still fixated on the Wither.

" _\- I've prepared an elixir that will defeat this creature._ "

" _An elix-_ oh." Onscreen, Jesse's face went snow white. " _We're dead._ "

Jesse made a comprehending humming sound but said nothing, her own face beginning to drain of color.

Ivor took out a potion- the same potion Axel had used to replace the fancy one earlier.

" _Uh oh_ ," Axel said, eyes widening in horror.

Ivor chucked the bottle at the Wither, which smashed upon impact. But nothing happened, as expected.

Ivor stared, horror written across his face. " _Impossible... it should've worked! I took such care!_ " he whispered.

"This is all your fault!" Ivor accused the teenagers.

Jesse threw her hands into the air. " _Our_ fault?! You're the one who's going to unleash that- that _thing_ on a crowd of people!" she yelled, voice actually rising an octave in horror.

" _The potion- Axel, you have to throw the real potion!_ " Olivia hissed at Axel.

Axel was obviously reluctant. " _But... finder's keepers._ "

"Axel!" Jesse nearly _screamed_ , glued to the screen in utter horror but still unable to tear her eyes away, "this is the wrong damn time for finders keepers!"

" _You thieves, you're ruining everything!_ " Ivor snapped back, having caught the whispered conversation.

Axel reluctantly pulled out the fancy potion, which Jesse snatched from his hand and pivoted, hurling at the Wither in a single fluid motion. A black skin crept over the block, just as the potion shattered.

Ivor went pure _white._ He dropped back into his seat, making everyone stare at him. His dark blue eyes were haunted and horrified, and his voice had dropped to a whisper when he said next, "We're all dead."

" _It's protecting itself!_ " Ivor cried out. " _Without the Command Block exposed, the potion's useless! It wasn't supposed to happen this way..._ " He backed away one step. Two steps. Before turning tail and sprinting away.

"What the hell?! You bring this monstrosity on us and then you don't even have the guts to face it?!" Jace yelled at Ivor, his voice cracking.

" _Ivor! You coward, get back here!_ " Gabriel roared after him, but Ivor was long gone.

Suddenly, a purple beam of light fell on Gabriel, lifting him into the air. He let out a yell of shock as he started to rise into the air.

"I didn't know Withers could do THAT!" Olivia yelled.

Soren muttered a swear, his fists clenching. "They can't, usually. The Command Block- it must be _altering_ the Wither somehow!" he seethed, eyes fixed on the screen in horror.

Olivia ran foward, but the moment she stepped into the tractor beam, she started to shake violently. A strange screech started emitting from her mouth as she started lifting into the air, the screech of only one mob possible. " _Je-Jesse-!_ " she screamed through the screeching, " _he-HELP-!_ "

Jesse reacted instantly, throwing her hands out. Strands of silk shot from each one, catching Gabriel on the leg and Olivia on the side. Jesse proceeded to lunge back a step, yanking with all of her might.

Both of them toppled to the ground, out of the tractor beam, grunting as they hit the floor.

Gabriel let out a sigh of relief.

" _Thank you,_ " Gabriel said, quickly jerking the string off, Olivia pulling it off as well and Jesse scraping her hands off. " _We don't have time to discuss that. Ivor was right about one thing... I can't defeat that thing. Not on my own._ " He looked up at the Wither, which was about the size of Jesse's treehouse, before he looked at the group, as if just realizing they were still there. " _Everyone's running away... except for you. Will you help me?_ "

"Gabriel's asking for help," Magnus said faintly. "This- this is bad, isn't it?"

Jesse didn't even hesitate before nodding at Gabriel. " _Of course,_ " she agreed.

" _Follow me!_ " And the five of them ran out of the keynote, none of them looking back as the world's worst monster was being created.

The screen faded to black.

"Ivor, what have you done?!" Soren groaned immediately, "you've- you've killed hundreds of people!"

"That thing got to the size of the treehouse in less than five _minutes_ ," Axel said, shaking his head. "It's just going to get bigger, isn't it?"

"Ignoring us being hybrids, we got tangled up in this because Ivor scammed Petra out of her skull, and we decided to chase him... and we couldn't even stop it," Lukas said, goggling at the screen. "Did we make things _worse?_ "

"Exactly-" Ivor was cut off by Jesse, who shook her head. "I don't know what would've happened if we'd ignored it. For all we know, the Wither would've blocked the potion either way," she mumbled quietly.

"Oh, please, I'll take down that thing in a single swipe!" Aiden grinned cockily.

Em turned to stare at him. "The greatest warrior of all time couldn't even _dent_ it while it was still the size of a normal Wither. What makes you think you can do anything more?"

Aiden scowled at her but said nothing when Jesse turned to shoot him a significant look.


	16. Hybrid Mayhem

A flock of chickens were clucking around on the bridge, when a crowd of people stampeded through them, sending several of them flying and feathers fluttering through the air. Among them was Aiden.

Lizzie raised her eyebrow. "Yeah, you'll totally kick that Wither-thing's butt."

Aiden scowled at her.

Jesse skidded to a stop at the back of the crowd, her path blocked by a flood of chickens. " _Get out of the way, you chickens!_ " she shouted desperately, looking around in a panic for a path through them to avoid stomping on any of them.

The screen switched to the dome roof, as it suddenly shattered, collapsing in on itself as a humongous black cloud-like thing with waving tentacles rose from the wreckage of the keynote, the one indigo eye sending out a tractor beam and sucking people up, giving off a vicious roar. As if to make things worse, two twin roars mingled with the single one, two _more_ heads sending out their own tractor beams.

"Oh Notch," Olivia said, faintly. She looked like she might pass out in fear.

Jesse grunted and leaped over the chickens, racing away as fast as she could. Two of the tractor beams started shining ahead, where Axel and Olivia could be spotted, sucking up blocks and even people, which disappeared into the mass that had become the Wither.

"Oh Notch," Petra agreed, looking a bit queasy.

Jesse was racing along the bridge when suddenly she was bathed in indigo light, and she let out a loud gasp as she started to rise into the air, part of the bridge coming with her and breaking apart with a tremendous cracking sound.

"JESSE!" Axel yelled, eyes wide.

Olivia clapped her hands over her eyes. "Not Jesse, not Jesse, not Jesse-!" she chanted in a hot panic, as if that would do any good. Jace put a hand on her shoulder, chancing a glance at Jesse, said girl staring hard at the screen.

" _Guys! Help! I'm up here!_ " Jesse yelled, her hands just barely having managed to catch the stone bridge. But the others were gone, lost in the chaos Endercon had become. Her hand slipped- Olivia squeaked-

Jesse shoved out her hand, a strand of silk shooting out of the tractor beam and slamming into the ground. She stopped rising towards the Wither, and she slowly began to pull herself forward, using the string like a robe. Slowly, her head emerged from the beam, then her torso-

She toppled out the rest of the way, smacking hard onto her back before doing a little flip in midair and slamming down onto her stomach.

The audience winced sympathetically.

" _Holy Notch, that hurt_ ," she moaned, getting to her feet and staggering a step, before regaining her balance and bolting through the crowd, many people screaming as they got sucked into the tractor beam. She spotted Lukas as she looked around frantically and ran towards him. " _Lukas!_ " she yelled.

The blonde whirled around to face her again, face white, body shaking like a leaf, eyes wide. " _Holy crap!_ " he cried out. " _Oh man, if I was still in that basement..._ "

Real-Lukas gulped and gave Jesse an even more grateful look. She smiled back at him upon spotting it.

Onscreen, Jesse shuddered a bit in fear. " _Thanks, Jesse,_ " Lukas said sincerely, gratitude shining in his eyes, " _I wouldn't be here without you._ "

" _Jesse!_ " And both of them looked over to see Petra, Olivia, Axel, and Reuben crouching under a booth. The two of them were quick to make their way over, but they'd hardly gotten there when a tractor beam sucked it up.

"Oh Notch, run you idiots!" Magnus yelled frantically.

That was exactly what they did- the entire group scattered with screams of fright. Jesse jolted to her feet, looking around. " _Wait!_ Wait! _We have to stick together..._ "

She was cut off by a scream. Jesse whirled around on the spot.

Petra was rising into the air, a tractor beam resting on her, flailing her arms desperately.

"PETRA!" Most of the audience yelled.

" _Help me!_ " Petra screamed out, reaching towards Jesse.

"Oh, Notch, I'm so sorry, Petra!" Olivia squeaked. "We must've been too panicked to notice-!"

"It's okay, Jesse's got me," Petra quickly assured her.

The black-haired girl jumped into the air and wrapped her fingers around Petra's wrist, the other one seizing ahold of a fencepost. The tractor beam didn't move, and Jesse's feet began to rise off of the ground into the air, the fencepost starting to wobble. " _I can't... hold on...!_ " she cried out.

Petra's hands had started to shake a bit. "Or... maybe not..." she trailed off.

Jesse and Petra both screamed as the fencepost broke onscreen.

Reuben let out a terrified squeal. Lukas was actually perched on the edge of his seat while Petra was starting to bite her nails, trying to keep her teeth from chattering in fear. Jace had the girl next to him in a _death hug_ , Olivia's head buried firmly in her hands, while Axel had actually covered his eyes in fear. The rest of the audience was glued to the sight of the two of them rising into the air-

A hand barely missed grabbing Jesse's, and the black-haired girl's eyes widened and then narrowed as she drew her arm back and then shoved it out, firing a string that barely missed Gabriel's face. The warrior seized ahold of it and yanked down, drawing Jesse barely into arm's reach, before grabbing her hand and pulling downwards with all of his strength.

The tractor beam happened to move away right then, and all three of them toppled to the ground, Jesse scraping the silk off her hand in the process.

"Go, Gabriel!" Dan cheered, making the warrior smile sheepishly at him.

" _Thanks!_ " Jesse exclaimed to the warrior onscreen, and he nodded in return.

The others ran back over, having noticed that Petra and Jesse were in trouble. Jesse's eyes flicked over them rapidly, worry written all over her face as the grateful and relieved look she'd had only seconds before faded. " _Do we have everybody?_ " she asked, worriedly.

" _We must set out for my fortress. We'll be better protected there!_ " Gabriel shouted, before starting to run. Everyone else followed suit, running past the Enderman fireworks launcher at the entrance as it got sucked up into a tractor beam.

Onscreen, Petra looked over at Jesse with grateful eyes. " _Thanks for that just now, Jesse,_ " she panted out.

" _Yeah, well, now we're even-_ " Jesse cut off her own joking tone with a gasp, the screen whirling to face the Witherstorm, which had started to pursue them for some reason. A flaming skull shot out at them.

" _Incoming!_ " Petra yelled, tackling Jesse, Reuben, and herself to one side as the flaming skull blasted a crater in the street.

"Now you owe me again," Petra teased halfheartedly.

Scrambling to their feet, they all bolted again. Jesse had fallen behind the others, who were already out of the gate. Which is perhaps why the gate started closing.

"What are they even _doing?!_ " Olivia shouted, "all they're doing is trapping people in there! Jesse might be one of them!"

"Whose dumb idea was it to shut the gates anyway?!" Stacy grouched, as if anyone knew the answer.

" _Why in Notch's sake would they close the gates- this dumb thing can FLY!_ " Jesse yelled onscreen, leaning forward to run faster, but it was pretty obvious she wasn't going to make it-

She gasped as she tripped forward, the screen zooming in on her face as the sound of ripping fabric could be heard. Jesse's eyes flicked down, and she gasped as the screen whipped down to reveal-

"WHOA!" and Nell bolted upright. Not that she was the only one- the entire audience had similar reactions. Jesse herself looked downright shocked.

Onscreen, Jesse's hands slammed into the ground. All six of them. She stared down at her two new sets of arms, before shaking her head and looking back up, the gate nearly closed. Her eyes narrowed, and she bolted forward, using all eight of her limbs to propel herself across the ground, shooting out from the tiny space between the gate and ground moments before it slammed shut.

"Well, at least we're all out," Lukas sighed with relief. "I can only hope the same for the other Ocelots."

The Wither turned around to face the direction they'd been running, and started to hover in their direction.

"Wait- that thing is chasing us- _why_ is that thing _chasing_ us?" Jesse asked, eyes narrowing.

"Gabriel must've gotten out as well," Ivor said.

Gabriel twisted to glare at the black-haired man. "You got that thing to target me-?! Do you realize how- how _idiotic_ that is?!" he nearly shouted. Ivor would've replied, but the warrior had already turned back around to stare at the screen.

Jesse looked around onscreen to see Olivia bleeping out of sight and back in at different distances. She seemed a little dizzy, though, because she kept stumbling whenever she landed. Petra was gliding acutely, whenever landing using her legs to launch herself forward again and covering greater distance than she would've had she been sprinting.

"That," Nell spoke, "is _awesome._ "

"Agreed," Jesse said, although she was obviously still preoccupied.

Onscreen, Jesse looked around to see that Axel had scooped Reuben up and thrown him onto his back, having gone to all fours and now moving forward at a speed that most humans probably couldn't reach. Lukas was on all fours as he bolted forward, tripping every couple of steps on his tail, and everyone could see a pair of cat-like ears poking through his hair.

"Holy _crap_ ," Lukas summarized, goggling at the screen.

Jesse looked around some more- Gill and Aiden were dodging through the burning forest along with some of the other townspeople.

"Wait, where's Maya?" Jace asked, eyes narrowing in concern. The only female member of the Ocelots looked as though she was going to burst into tears any second now.

Jesse had caught up to where her friends were, and was barely able to exchange a nod with them before they all had to scatter as a black tentacle slammed into the ground where they'd all started clumping together.

Jesse shot back upright, staggering a step, before charging forward and leaping over the tentacle that had slammed down over her path, clearing it, stumbling upon landing, and bolting forward into the temple.

Gabriel was flipping levers with such intensity it was a bit of a surprise that none of them were broken as the others bolted down the steps. " _The inner chamber is made of obsidian- we should be untouchable in there!_ " he shouted as the doors slid open to reveal a room made totally of obsidian, a Nether Portal sitting in the center of the room. Before anything else could be said, purple light flooded into the room.

" _Hurry!_ " Gabriel yelled, drawing his sword, " _if you can get through the portal, you'll be safe!_ "

Axel charged through the unlit portal, but then paused on the other side when nothing happened. " _Uh, something's not right here!_ "

Jesse patted her pockets- and then again. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open.

"That's- that's not a good sign, is it?" Lizzie asked, blue eyes narrowing in worry.

" _Oh_ crap! _"_ Jesse cried out onscreen, " _I must've dropped the flint and steel just now! I can't find it!_ "

Petra spewed out a twenty-word-long string of swears. Nobody bothered to get angry at her about it.

All five of them shared a panicked look, before Petra sighed and held her left arm out. Fire spit out of her palm and slammed into the Nether Portal, making a purple swirling curtain explode into being in the archway.

" _Petra-_ " Axel began, his eyes wide.

" _Look, I know that was freaky, but we don't have time to worry about it right now!_ " Petra almost screamed at him, gold eyes sparking in panic, " _get in,_ now!"

Axel scooped Reuben up- making the pig squeal in surprise- after about a moment's hesitation, and charged in through the portal, disappearing in a flash of purple light. Olivia was quick to follow.

But before Petra, Lukas, and Jesse could follow, there was a loud yell.

"Wait, we're the only ones who made it-?! What about Aiden and Gill?! They were in the crowd!" Petra almost yelled, bouncing in place from where she was seated on the armchair.

Jesse whirled around to see Gabriel getting towed out of the obsidian room by a tentacle. " _Gabriel!_ " she yelled, running back and engaging in a game of tug-of-war with the tentacle, feet skidding across the ground as she yanked with all her might.

Her lower arms twitched, making her look down at them, before they reached out and seized Gabriel by the forearms. She struggled for a moment more, before yanking him out of the tentacle's grip, the tentacle choosing to retreat rather than following Gabriel and knocking down two people trying to make their way inside.

" _Thank you,"_ Gabriel thanked the girl, looking surprisingly unsurprised about Jesse's extra arms, before turning back to the doorway, expression growing more somber. " _There are so many of them... I can't- I can't save them all... I can't stop this by myself. We have to find the others._ "

"Er... others?" Magnus asked, sounding a little worried. "Please tell me you know another group of legendary heroes..."

Jesse blinked at him rapidly, green eye flickering with worry. " _The... others?_ " she asked, slowly.

" _Soren's been missing for years,_ " Gabriel continued, " _but the others- you must seek them out._ "

"Nope, he means us. Fantastic."

Gabriel reached into his pocket and pulled out an amulet. There was a blue gem encircled with gold in the circle, surrounded by four crystals and a darker ring, before some small protuberances of gold on the end of each crystal finished the look. There was a red gem, a green one, a cyan one, and a white one. The cyan gem was glowing brightly. " _Take this amulet, and guard it with your life._ "

Jesse took it, looking at it with this supremely confused look. " _Wh-what do I do with it?"_ she asked.

" _Take it through the portal, and then-_ "

He was interrupted by a tremendous smashing sound, both of them looking up as a tentacle smashed through the ceiling, one of the heads peering in. Jesse dove out of the way as it slammed down between her and Gabriel, cracking the ground with the force it hit the floor with. Petra let out a yell, and Jesse whipped around to see the redhead getting knocked away with another one.

Jesse charged and slammed it away, and although it didn't do much damage, it was enough to keep the Wither at bay for a few moments.

Lukas let out a scream, quaking near the portal, his ears flattened against his head. Petra rushed up and slashed a tentacle away from him, Jesse skidding up to them a minute later.

" _You two, go through the portal and meet up with the others,_ " Petra ordered them. " _I'll stay behind to do whatever I can._ "

"Petra, no! You're gonna get yourself killed!" Axel yelled.

Petra started to run back into the fray, pausing when neither of them moved. " _Guys, GO! Now!_ "

" _I'll stay with you_ -" Jesse began, but Petra was quick to cut her off.

" _No. The others_ need _you, Jesse,_ " she responded firmly. " _I'll meet you guys at the temple!_ "

Another yell, and they all whipped around to see the warrior caught up in a tractor beam. Petra and Jesse both charged towards him, but suddenly indigo light hit Petra, and the redhead started rising into the air with a panicked scream.

"Oh no!" Olivia gasped.

" _NO!_ " Jesse shouted, whirling around again. " _Lukas!_ "

She stopped a minute later- Lukas was shaking so hard he was nearly vibrating, eyes so wide they were the size of bowling balls, his hair and tail standing on end in pure fright.

"Oh, Notch, you froze," Olivia goggled, staring at Real-Lukas, "you _froze..._ "

"Grab one of them, quick!" Dan yelled, flailing his arms and nearly hitting Stampy in the face.

Jesse bit her lip, looking frantically from Gabriel to Petra, before jumping up and grabbing Petra by the leg, heaving her back down to the floor and both of them landing flat on their backs.

Petra breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Jess."

" _Thanks, Jesse. Gabriel's still up there-!_ " Petra exclaimed onscreen, her eyes widening.

Jesse scrambled to her feet and shoved out her palm, but just as the string started firing, a tentacle came slamming down next to her and she jumped, making the string fly off target. She gritted her teeth and ripped it off, getting ready to try again. Gabriel twisted around. " _Jesse! Go!_ " he yelled at her.

" _No!_ " Jesse repeated, running for him and raising her hand to try again-

A tentacle came flying out of nowhere and slammed right into Jesse, sending her flying backwards, slamming straight into Lukas and knocking the both of them into the portal. The screen blacked out.

"Oh Notch," Jesse whispered, her arms wrapped tightly around Reuben. "Oh Notch, I hope everyone's gonna be okay..."

"I'm sure I'll be fine. I've survived too much to die now," Petra said, although her hands tightening on the armchair's arms said otherwise.

 

 

 


	17. Guilt

The screen faded back in to Jesse and Lukas toppling backwards out of the portal and hitting the ground hard. They slowly got to their feet as the screen zoomed out to show Olivia, Axel, and Reuben waiting for them. The ground seemed to be made out of some strange... stone... thing, and lava and fire surrounded them thickly.

" _Where's Petra?_ " Axel asked.

Lukas's face was pure _white_ with fear. He was also starting to tremble violently, ears drooping so that they flattened against his head. " _I'm sorry_ ," he whispered, staring into space, " _oh, Notch, I'm_ sorry."

Jesse simply shook her head and opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a gasp.

"Oh, jeez," Lukas said, rubbing his head and wincing, "I'm really sorry I wasn't able to help you out there, Jesse."

"It's fine," Jesse said immediately, "I'm sure Petra is fine." Her voice faltered a second later. "Well, at least, I mean I _hope_ she is..."

" _What are you saying?_ " Axel asked.

Jesse shook her head again, as if not sure what to say. Olivia picked up this time, fear practically saturating her voice. " _Jesse? What's he talking about?_ "

The black-haired girl cleared her throat, a bit shakily, before answering. " _It- it was chaos. There- there wasn't much I could do_ ," she said finally, voice shaking slightly.

Lukas nodded, still staring into blank space. " _Jesse's right_ ," he said faintly.

" _Petra's still up there_ ," Jesse finished, all six of her arms crossing within their sets, making her shiver a bit, as if she was unused to the sensation.

" _I got scared,_ " Lukas admitted finally in a whisper, lifting his eyes to meet them all in the eye, his face still the shade of paper. " _Just for a second._ "

Axel's eyes hardened. " _You got_ scared? _"_ He stepped towards the ocelot hybrid, who took a step back, starting to shake again.

" _I'm sorry,_ " and Lukas's voice cracked as he repeated, " _oh Notch, I'm_ sorry."

" _You got scared and all you can say is you're_ sorry? _"_ Axel growled.

"Easy, big guy," Petra said quickly. "It could've happened to anyone. Besides, I wasn't going to go through the portal anyways, remember?"

Axel didn't answer, eyes narrowing at the screen.

" _Back off, Axel,_ " Olivia put in, as Jesse went over and put her hand on Lukas's shoulder. He stopped shaking and turned to look up at her. She gently tugged on his arm and pulled him back to his feet as Axel stomped towards the portal.

_ "We gotta go back. _ "

Olivia stepped in front of it, blocking his path. " _No!_ " she protested, " _we just have to wait. Think about what you're walking into._ "

Jesse nodded in agreement. " _Olivia's right. There's nothing we can do. We'd all just end up getting ourselves killed. Besides, Petra's tough. She's half Blaze. She'll be fine._ "

"Yeah, what she said," Petra said, giving Axel a smile. "I appreciate that you'd go back for me, but I'm kinda glad they stopped you."

Axel just sighed. "I hope you don't get yourself killed."

" _Maybe... but..._ " Axel was suddenly cut off by Lukas, who was pointing at the portal. " _Hey! There she is!_ " the blonde exclaimed.

The purple swirls in the archway swayed and wobbled, indicating someone was coming through.

" _Come on, come on..._ " Jesse whispered, staring at the portal hopefully.

But it wasn't Petra who fell through the portal. No, who fell through the portal was the man who'd started the whole mess in the first place. Jesse's hopeful look fell as Ivor scrambled to his feet.

"Ivor?" Soren asked, sounding surprised.

Ivor's eyes hardened into a glare upon seeing who was standing there. " _You again?_ " he sneered.

Whatever anyone would've said next, it was interrupted as a tentacle thrashed through the opening and curled in on itself, grabbing at thin air. Jesse dove out of the way with a shriek, Axel fell on his bottom in surprise and scooted away, Olivia bleeped several feet away in a spray of sparks, and Lukas let out a yowl as he bolted several feet away, hair standing up on end.

The tentacle thwacked against the side of the portal, wrapping around it and squeezing. The portal cracked, purple warping, before falling apart completely, the tentacle vanishing back through it moments before it disappeared altogether.

The audience gaped.

"Oh _no_ ," Olivia groaned. "How is anyone supposed to get through? How's _Petra_ supposed to get through?"

"I guess we'll have to find a different way," Petra said softly.

Onscreen, the group stared at the portal in varying levels of horror, Jesse slowly catching her breath and looking at Ivor.

He caught her eye and glowered at her. " _You ruined_ everything," he accused her.

Jesse's fists tightened, and she stared at the ground.

"Oh, crud," Jesse sighed, leaning forward onto one elbow. "Looks like I'm about to start blaming myself for everything."

"Do you do that?" Jace asked her.

Jesse let out a short bark of laughter. "Yeah. When things go _really_ wrong, I manage to convince myself that I'm the reason everything got so messed up. I guess that's 'cause of the way I was raised, I guess."

Unnoticed by her, several members of the audience arched their eyebrows at each other.

Jesse bit her lip onscreen as Ivor continued, just as harshly as before, " _Don't pretend you didn't know,_ thief. _You took my most valuable potion and what should've been my moment of triumph!_ "

" _I- I didn't take it!_ " Jesse protested, but her voice had dropped to a whisper, and it was obvious she was starting to tremble. She dashed her hand across her eyes, her fists clenching even more tightly. " _I didn't take the potion- you're the one who set off a Wither in a theater full of people!_ "

" _A Wither I could control,_ " Ivor corrected, " _until you showed up! There's nothing left up there! Nothing but that Wither Storm._ "

"Witherstorm... huh, kinda a catchy name," Magnus hummed.

Ellegaard glared at him. "Really? You're doing that NOW?"

"What? It is!"

Jesse shook her head again, making her barrette slip down and a curtain of hair drop in front of her face. " _I... didn't do anything..._ " Her voice faltered and broke at the end.

Olivia blinked and then looked worried. " _Jesse...? Are you okay?_ " she asked, sounding slightly alarmed.

Jesse reached up, before pulling her hand away to see sparkling droplets on her fingers- she'd started to cry. She quickly rubbed her arm over her eyes to get rid of the rest of the tears. " _Y-yeah_."

" _Why are we wasting time talking to this jerk?_ " Axel asked, putting an arm around Jesse and giving her what was probably supposed to be a comforting squeeze, but what really made Jesse squeak as he squashed some of the air out of her.

Jesse chuckled faintly and shook her head. Axel grinned sheepishly at her.

" _We have to go Petra-_ "

Ivor's eyes widened. " _The girl! I saw her._ "

" _What?_ " Lukas asked immediately, his head snapping back up to look at the man.

" _While I was running towards the portal, I passed her. She was running in the opposite direction. Such bravery._ " A short pause. " _Of course, there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity._ "

Jace's eyes hardened.

" _And your friend has crossed it._ "

Jesse shook her head, pulling the left wave of hair out of the way of her face, a nearly blank frown on her face. " _Don't talk about her like that_ ," she said, in a low and scary voice that had the barest quiver to it from crying just now. Her blood-red eye glowed, and in the hellish landscape of the Nether, dramatic warped shadows were being thrown over her face.

"That- that is _creepy_ ," Cassie said, shivering a little bit. "That is _really_ creepy, you know that?"

"Oh Notch yeah, I'm fully aware," Jesse agreed, shivering a little herself.

Ivor started back for a moment, looking taken aback, before regaining his composure. Jesse adjusted her barrette back into place and let go of her left wave of hair again as he spoke. " _Through that tunnel-_ " he pointed at said tunnel- " _is a network of minecarts built by the Order of the Stone. It's your only way out._ "

"Wait, so he's helping us now?" Olivia looked a bit confused. "I'm starting to think he's bipolar or something."

"I'm perfectly sane, thank you," Ivor snapped back at her.

"I never said you weren't," Olivia replied, deceptively calmly.

" _... I guess we should head that way,_ " Axel agreed grudgingly a moment later.

Lukas nodded. " _Time's a-wasting, let's go._ "

Jesse turned to look at Ivor oddly. " _What about you?_ "

" _What about me?_ "

Jesse spread all six of her arms out in a questioning motion. " _How are you going to get out of here?_ " she clarified.

"Yeah, how do we know you're not luring them into some kind of trap?" Petra asked, narrowing her eyes at Ivor.

Ivor rolled his eyes. "Why would I even need to bother? They'd probably die faster _without_ me leading them into some sort of trap."

"Was that meant to be _comforting_ , or...?" Jesse asked, giving him a bewildered look.

" _I'll use my imagination,_ " Ivor responded sarcastically.

Jesse glared at him, but before she could snap at him, a sound like a child whimpering or crying cut through the air. All of the teenagers immediately looked around. " _What was that?_ " Axel wondered.

"Um..." Petra scratched her head, looking slightly awkward. "Very, very bad news."

" _I would wish you good luck,_ " Ivor said, turning back to the group, " _but luck won't carry you through the Nether. You have my sympathies._ "

Jesse rolled her eyes at him. " _Gee, that's so much more valuable. Thank you so much,_ " she snarked back.

Jace chuckled at the black-haired girl's sarcasm. She smiled back at him.

Ivor took out a potion and drank it, pink swirls of smoke wisping off of him as he began to glow. And then, suddenly, he was gone, the empty potion bottle clinking to the floor.

The cry sounded again, and they all turned to see a big, white monster floating up behind them. Jesse let out a little gasp as it made another sound, but sounding much angrier, and the eyes opened, revealing glowing red orbs that rivaled Jesse's.

"Oh Notch," Gill said. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Probably," Ellegaard said in a faint sort of voice. "That, my acquaintances, is a ghast."

Jesse and the others started backing away from it as it stared at them. " _Run?_ " Jesse asked conversationally.

" _Run,_ " Olivia agreed, just as conversationally, before they all turned tail and bolted for the tunnel Ivor had pointed out, the ghast floating after them. Passing a zombie pigman, they skidded to a stop at a little hill, where six minecarts sat on some tracks. Without a word, they bolted for the minecarts, just as a fireball slammed into the area above it and made several of the stone-like blocks topple to the ground.

Jesse vaulted into the one behind Reuben, Lukas jumping in a moment later and crouching on the floor of his, Olivia bleeping into sight into the one behind him, and Axel gave the carts a good hard shove before hopping into his. The carts started moving, before hitting some powered rails and practically leaping away from the area, the ghast giving angry little cries behind them but giving no indication of following them.

The screen faded to black.


	18. Deadly Roller Coasters

The screen came back in to the whole group riding over a huge ocean of lava, passing several lava falls. It was oddly beautiful... in a really, REALLY dangerous way.

" _Wow,_ " Lukas breathed, looking around with his hands perched on the edges of the minecart. " _The Nether._ "

" _Yeah,_ " Olivia agreed, looking around a bit herself. " _That's a lot of lava. And fire. And other things that could burn you to death."_

Lizzie made this odd little choking sound that sounded a bit like a laugh.

Suddenly, Reuben let out this terrified squeal and crouched into his minecart. Jesse's face went pale as well. " _Oh gosh,_ " she said, quietly.

"What? What's wrong?" Dan asked, practically bouncing in his seat and making the other YouTubers bounce as well inadvertently.

The screen zoomed out to reveal this very long, very steep drop.

"Oh." Soren winced and rubbed his head. "I remember that part."

" _Oh, that is a drop,_ " Lukas said, eyes widening and his ears flattening against his head again, " _that is very, very much a drop._ "

" _What are you talking about, new guys? What droooOH_ crap! _You weren't kidding,_ " Axel exclaimed, his own eyes widening. Reuben let out an oink of agreement at this.

" _Get ready!_ " Jesse warned them, before the carts suddenly dropped forward at an alarmingly fast speed. The screen slowed down and gave them a good look at their faces, almost like the rides at amusement parts. Axel had his hands in the air, Lukas's knuckles had turned white and his ears were flattened against his head, Olivia had slapped her hands over her eyes, Jesse's eyes were wide, and Reuben looked utterly terrified.

"Oh man, look at their faces!" Maya laughed, although she didn't look like she was making fun of any of them.

"I would like a picture of that," Stampy agreed, grinning.

They slammed into the bottom and barreled forward, still rushing along at high speeds. Rocketing into a tunnel, there was a low wall blocking space for their heads. _"Oh_ no, _"_ Jesse groaned, " _who puts this stuff in?!_ "

"Yeah, why _did_ you put that stuff in?" Jace asked, twisting around to look at the Order.

Ellegaard shrugged sheepishly. "We didn't use that track all that often. Besides, we all knew it was there, and none of us bothered to go out and fix it."

Onscreen, the whole group ducked down with a yelp or yell. When the wall passed, Jesse sat back up and turned to look at her friends, but another wall was rushing up.

" _Watch out!_ " Olivia screamed, and Jesse ducked down just in time.

They shot out of the tunnel and were rushing over the sea of lava again, but this time they were headed straight for a lava fall. " _Okay,_ " Axel squeaked in an unnaturally high-pitched voice, " _so, I'm not the only one who sees that we're running out of track, right?_ "

" _No_ ," Lukas replied.

" _Good!_ "

"Okay, why'd you put THAT in?!" Jesse exclaimed, turning to look at the Order of the Stone.

"To keep out intruders," Gabriel replied.

"Yeah, well you could try not to _kill_ the intruders in the process!" Jesse yelped, flailing her arms and nearly smacking Axel in the face.

Onscreen, Jesse shifted and leaned out as far to one side as she could upon spotting a lever. " _Ohh, boy..._ "

" _Jesse!_ " Olivia shouted, " _that switch! Flip it! Now!_ "

Jesse bit her lip, and then leaned out as far as she seemed to dare, her fingers barely whizzing over it as she missed- the audience gasped.

One of her lower arms flailed out and slammed right into the lever, making the minecarts screech to a violent stop, making all of the passengers jolt slightly from the impact. The screen zoomed out to show hundreds of thousands of pistons beginning to retract, dropping the minecart lower and lower.

Jesse giggled nervously, still shivering from just a moment before. " _Haha, wow! I thought we were going to die there, but, I guess everything's WHOA!_ " The last part came from the carts starting to move forward again, but splitting up and taking unexpected turns, the passengers all letting out surprised yells.

"She jinxed it," Petra called out.

Jesse found herself alone on the track with one empty cart. She looked around anxiously. " _Um... Axel? Olivia? Lukas? Reuben? Hello?_ " she called into the emptiness, her voice echoing back slightly.

A squeal cut through the air, and she twisted to see Reuben squealing in fear as a skeleton towered above him in the cart, arrow pointed at the pig.

" _What in- okay_ ," and Jesse stood up quickly as the cart turned so that she was only feet away from the skeleton, her cart right alongside Reuben's. " _Hang in there, Reuben!_ "

She whipped out the gold sword Petra had given her, eyes hardening, firelight glinting off the blade, before lashing out and smacking the sword straight into the skeleton, which turned to her, bow drawn and aimed right at her face. She sliced through the string, making the bow's limbs straighten out violently and twang uselessly out of the skeleton's hands, before slamming the blade right into its ribs and knocking it out of the cart and into the lava below.

"Nice one, Jesse!" and Axel high-fived the girl over Jace's head.

" _Reuben!_ " Jesse called out, sounding relieved, sword still out. Reuben let out his own pleased squeal and hopped into the empty cart behind her. Well, now it wasn't empty, because it was full of little pink pig, but- you get the point!

" _Okay, so, I know I said- well, I was trying to say- that everything would be okay?_ "

Petra groaned, jumped out of her seat, and punched Jesse on the shoulder, making the black-haired girl flinch with a yelp. "Stop jinxing it!"

"I can't help it! I'm an optimistic person!"

" _Well, I was wrong then, but I have a good feeling about oh_ ships of the ocean," Jesse transferred straight into a groan as a ghast went flying straight over her head before turning to face the two of them, two other ghasts blocking it.

"Wow, you've got to have the _worst_ luck _ever_ , Jesse," Lukas said, wincing.

"That's... incredibly inconvenient," Otto agreed.

The short girl threw her hands into the air with this frustrated grunt. " _Notchdammit!_ " she snapped.

The middle ghast shot a fireball at her, and Jesse automatically ducked down, one hand bracing herself on the minecart rim and the other one holding her sword. The fireball rebounded off her sword and hit the ghast, injuring it.

"Or... maybe not."

" _Right!_ " Jesse said, eyes hardening, and she stood back up, swinging her sword to block the next fireball and sending it flying back at the ghast, killing it. " _Now that I think about it, it's like a game of baseball._ " A short pause as she smacked away another fireball. " _Albeit a rather deadly game of baseball._ "

This prompted several laughs from the audience.

As the last ghast rose up to shoot another fireball, Jesse smacked it back, but her sword slipped out of her hands, making her gasp. Olivia squeaked and tightened her grip on Axel's arm, making the burly boy wince in pain. Her lower arm grabbed the sword, and tossed it back up to the upper set just in time for Jesse to send one last fireball flying and kill the last ghast.

"Way to go, Jesse!" Olivia cheered, her hands relaxing.

"Who knew you had it in ya? You look like you couldn't hurt a living creature," Petra said, grinning.

Honestly, she probably deserved that pillow that got chucked at her head for some reason or another.

"Oh, come on," Aiden scoffed, "I could beat five of those things with one arm tied behind my back."

"You wanna try? We can spawn some in here and-" Isa asked sharply, obviously tired of hearing his bragging. Aiden's eyes widened and he shook his head and hands quickly.

"No! No. I'm good."

"Thought so."

Jesse let out a relieved sigh onscreen and sheathed her sword. " _Whew- okay- not dead. That's pretty good,_ " she gasped, before turning around to see her pig, who popped out of the minecart he'd been hiding in. " _Well, Ghasts are officially off my to-see list._ "

Petra let out a groan. Jesse gave her a sheepish grin.

" _Done with 'em. Never need to see them again ahhhh crap._ " The last two words came from her spotting a ghast watching her through a hole in the wall, before turning a corner to see the ghast hovering near the track, which went up... and up...

And then ran out entirely.

"Oh _come on!_ " Lizzie exclaimed, "why is _that_ in there?!"

Magnus cleared his throat. "That- ah- that was an accident."

Jesse stared at him, before turning back to the screen. "Magnus, if I die because of this, I'm expecting you to pay for my tombstone."

The ghast shot another fireball at them, and Reuben hopped out of his cart and into Jesse's lap. Just in time, too, because the fireball blasted the empty minecart behind them into the lava. " _This is bad, this is bad, this is very, very, VERY bad,_ " Jesse practically chanted as the cart started gaining speed and going up the track, all six of her hands tightening on the minecart so hard that her knuckles were white.

Olivia covered her eyes again.

Jesse let out a scream as the cart soared right off the tracks, right past the ghast's uncaring face as it slowly turned to watch them, before the cart slowly started to obey the laws of gravity and slammed back down onto some more tracks, connecting to the ones in front of them with a bang.

Lukas, Olivia, and Axel swiveled in the same direction to stare at them.

"We're alive!" Axel cheered.

"Thank Notch for that," Jesse sighed, leaning into Jace with a hand over her thudding heart.

Ellegaard hummed. "Oh, yes, I remember that track. It was the first one we made. Although we stopped using it after Magnus _blew it up_ ," and she sent a glare in his direction.

"I _said_ I was sorry!"

Jesse was panting, her eyes wide. " _Is... is everyone okay?_ " she asked, when she seemed to have regained her voice.

There was a short pause.

Everyone slowly turned to face the front again, Axel's face pale. " _I mean, I'm not_ dead. _I guess that's pretty good."_

" _Ditto_ ," Olivia said shakily, " _ditto on the 'not dead'._ "

" _I can't believe Petra comes down here all the time,_ " Lukas said faintly, his ears flattened against his head again. " _This place is awful._ "

Petra shrugged noncommittally but didn't say anything.

A second later, Lukas joked, sounding extremely faint, " _Your throat's gonna be sore later, Axel._ "

" _Why?_ "

" _I'm just saying, wasn't that you doing all that screaming before? Sounds like you were really shredding your larynx,"_ Lukas said, his ears slowly perking back up.

" _Oh yeah,_ " and Olivia turned to look at Lukas again, " _I heard that too. Really high-pitched? Sounded like a squeaky piston?_ "

" _What? No. Shut up,_ " Axel said, his cheeks turning faintly pink.

Real Olivia and Lukas laughed a bit, Axel playfully glaring at them both.

" _Never mind,_ " Lukas said, although he was definitely smiling faintly now. " _Must've been something else._ "

Jesse regained control of her vocal cords at this point. " _You know those experiences that people reminisce on and talk about for the rest of their lives?_ " she asked, conversationally.

"Where's Jesse going with that?" Maya wondered.

Onscreen, the rest of the group slowly nodded, obviously wondering the same thing.

Jesse's face went perfectly deadpan. " _This is not one of those. Let's never speak of this again._ "

"Oh."

" _I think I'd be okay with that,_ " Olivia agreed.

The minecarts rattled on, and the screen blacked out.

Jesse heaved a relieved sigh and flopped down backwards onto the carpet. "Okay... none of us are dead yet. That's pretty good," she said, absentmindedly testing her pulse.

"But what about redhead here? We don't know if she's okay," Magnus said, pointing at Petra.

"Her name is Petra," Cassie said, pointedly gesturing at her own red hair. "Please do not refer to her as 'the redhead'."

"Thank you!" Petra said.


End file.
